Israphel
by AliceofGaming
Summary: Sequel to Begginings. Based on the Yogscast Shadow of Israphel series. Rated T just in case.
1. The Events Shortly After

Chapter One: The Events Shortly After

She ran. Every single bone in her body, every instinct told her to keep going, deeper and deeper into the woods. She finally stopped at the outside edge of the forest. How far had she run? It had to be miles if she'd made it to here. Suddenly realizing how exhausted she was from the sprint, she sat down against a tree.

She couldn't go back. Didn't want to. She'd seen what had happened, and who knew how many of the villagers were in on this? Why had they wanted to kill Izzy? He'd never bothered them before. Tears and fatigue began blur her vision, and she tried to snap herself out of it, think rationally.

She looked up at the sky. There wasn't much daylight left. She needed to find shelter, unless she intended to meet the same fate as Israphel. She walked over to a nearby cave. Walking in, it appeared to be more of a tunnel. The ceiling was mostly composed of coal ore, so she mined it out, leaving the cave-tunnel thing open to the sky. She then left to find better shelter. She found a smaller, easier to defend cave, and made camp there. She killed a pig for pork, and headed inside as the sun set. She wouldn't stay here long, as it was too close to the village. Perhaps she'd take a quick look at the weird stonehenge she'd passed earlier, before she left though.

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Everything was going to plan. No one had suspected anything. John laughed. It was just too easy, really. He'd soon be the most powerful man in Minecraftia. Of course,some had wondered what gave him the right to lead, but this was expected. A few mutinous fools wouldn't be a problem in the long run.

He crossed the room to where the boy stood. His face pale, and dark red eyes glaring at him. He'd be broken soon enough. His mind was easily manipulated, but it would be easier to just beat him into passive submission, really. A flicker of fear passed over Israphel's face, and John grinned. This would be quite fun.


	2. Broken

Chapter Two: Broken

Maria continued away from the village. She was a good ways off, but she wanted to be several days travel away before settling permenently. As she walked through an area of forest, as she usually did, she felt a strange uneasiness creep up inside her. She stopped and looked around. She tried to shrug off the feeling, to no avail.

"Calm down," She muttered to herself, "It's just your imagination." Maria began walking again.

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"Now Israphel, you realize things will get much worse for you if you continue resisting," John looked into the boy's eyes as he took the knife he was holding and cut Israphel's neck again. As the red liquid dripped onto the already bloodstained ground, Israphel flinched in pain, his hand instinctly flying to the wound.

"You see, the wonderful thing about you, is that you're already dead. So I can inflict as much pain as I desire, in any way I wish, and you'll feel it all. You'll just keep bleeding."

The man was mad. That much was obvious. You could see it not only by his actions, but the look in his eye had gradually become different. More oviously bloodthirsty and insane. He let out a small chuckle.

"Of course, we've been doing this for quite a while now, and you're still being difficult. Perhaps you don't care much for yourself, but I could always find one of your little friends, you know. Maybe then, you'd be a bit more cooperative," he paused to enjoy the more raw fear in the boy's eyes. "What was that girl's name again? Maria was it? You had the most adorable little crush on her, I remember. Nice girl, she was. It's a shame she'll have to die."

Israphel's walls wavered a bit. Maybe he should give up. He watched as John left the room. This man was so twisted so evil. It was hard to beleive there were those worse than him. Others that would inevitably destroy him. But there were, and there wasn't anything that could stop them.

A/N: Sorry these chapters are short, but the next one is long enough that it would get too long if I went ahead and continued. 


	3. Interruption

A/N: Okay, fine. I'm a liar. This one's short too. And it took forever to write. I won't bore you with excuses. xP Sorry.

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Maria pulled a bone out of her pack and approached the wolf. The past few weeks had been very lonely. It would be nice to have a companion. She crouched in front of it and offered the treat to the it. The creature sniffed her curiously. It opened its mouth to take the bone, but paused suddenly. It backed away a few pawsteps before sprinting back into the underbrush.

She looked behind her to see what had spooked the dog, and found herself face to face with three strange men. She vaguely remembered seeing them back in Terrorvale once or twice, but she couldn't place names, occupations, or anything else for that matter, onto them. She slowly rose from her crouch and faced them.

One was tall, and had the air of a leader about him. He looked her over as she did the same to the small group. Another was a bit shorter than the first, and was very tan, with peircing dark eyes. The third was slightly like a combination of the two. His hight waws in between their's, as was his skin tone. He was the least threatening of the three, as he loked a bit distracted, and his face was less intense. All of them had iron swords on them, which did make sense, seeing as they were pretty much out in the middle of nowhere as well, so Maria didn't think much of it.

"Are you Maria?" The tall one asked. A flash of uneasiness made her hesitate for a bit, but she nodded slowly in reply.

"We've been looking for you," the third said,"People have noticed that you've run away from home, dear. They're very worried about you."

Maria inched backwards a bit. Something seemed off. No one would've found her absence strange for a few days, at least. She was known to run around on her own, often not coming home for a few nights. She was adventurous and knew her way around the forest she'd grown up in like the back of her hand. It was very possible that she could have had even up to a week's head start. She'd kept moving every day, too. How could they have found her?

"Why don't you come back to the village with us?" They continued, moving towards her. The smiles plastered to their faces becoming less convincing every second.

"No," She said, "I'm happy here. I can take care of myself. Just go back and tell my mom I'm fine." She tried to sound convincing, but her voice wavered a bit. She backed away slowly.

"I'm afraid we can't do that, luv," The tall one said, continuing towards her a bit more agressively.

Maria broke out into a run. She was more nimble, and could maneuver around the forest more easily, gracefully clearing roots and ducking under branches. The trio following her was much faster, however, and quickly caught up. The tan, hawkish looking one grabbed her arm. She wasn't much of a fighter, but she kicked and screamed anyway, trying to pull away. Her resistance was rewarded with a mouthfull of dirt, as she was pushed to the ground, and a kick in the side.

Maria continued to try to escape, however, Terrified of whatever fate might await her. Her attempts and screams were finally silenced when one of them was ordered to make her shut up, and did so by giving her a good kick in the head, causing her to spiral into blackness.


	4. Years Later

A/N: Sorry for taking so long guys. I had to go on a little hiatus because of marching band and such (xP) But I'm back now! Huzzah. :P

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Israphel looked out of an observation window with a sigh. He wondered why they called it an observation window as if there were pleasant things to observe outside. Perhaps someone else found the flames and monsters outside wonderful and pleasant, but certainly not him.

"Hello, son," A voice greeted from behind. Israphel turned to the old man.

"John," he acknoledged. He absolutely refused to call this man father, for he wasn't biologically, nor had he been adopted. Unless, of course, you call being taken from your home in the middle of the night "adopting." He was a terrible, insane man, if you could even call something like him human.

_Am _I _even human?_ Israphel thought before pushing the thought aside.

"Now Israphel, I thought you would have forgiven me by now. I've done everything I've done for your good. Think! If you were just a bit more cooperative, you could be so much more powerful!"

"You lied to me all of my life, murdered me on my fifteenth birthday, and who know's where Maria is. These things are not easily forgiven," Israphel said softly. He didn't like to talk much anymore. Never did, actually, at least as far as he knew. He couldn't remember much about his childhood. A few names, a couple of isolated events here and there sometimes, but not much at all.

"Oh, but that was six years ago, Israphel! Ages, really,"

"Five years." Israphel corrected.

"Well, who's counting?" He chuckled slightly and was met with Israphel's blank stare. "Hm, well. Anyway, you did a good job leading those two young men to Terrorvale. They arrived a few days ago. Don't worry, I've got them taken care of. I'll send the two off to their deaths, so they won't be able to bring any harm to you. If the first attempt doesn't work, then we've got a back up plan that'll certainly take care of them, of course, there's one man that might get involved with that one. It's a shame, but it's merely collateral damage really," He trailed off on the last bit, as if he hadn't really intended to say it aloud. John sighed, then his eyes lit up for a brief moment. "Speaking of which, I have a surprise for you! A bit of a gift, I guess you could say." He gestured for him to follow, and ever reluctantly, he did.

He really didn't like the man's definition of the words "gift" and "surprise". When he'd first been taken here, they usually had something to do with the words "pain" and "torture". It depended on the person, he guessed. He wasn't too sure what to base these things from to begin with, actually. Maybe these words were actually closely related as far as most people were concerned. He didn't really remember it being that way, but after all that had been done to his brain at the end of his first few years here, he wasn't sure if he could trust his memories. Though, anything that opposed the people who had done these things to him likely wouldn't be planted there, would it?

He was led through the corridors that were an unnatural combination of steel with patches of stone, and vice versa, until they reached a locked door at the end of it. John fished an old brass key out of a pocket and unlocked the heavy door. This room must've been ages old, as the last bit of the corridor had been made completely out of stone and the key was so old-fashioned. John pushed open the door, and it was all Israphel could do to keep from gasping in horror.

It wasn't the room itself that set him off, it was a fairly normal sort of bedroom, other than being locked off in a rarely traveled hallway. No, it was the girl sitting on the edge of the bed gagged, bound, bloodstained, and glaring daggers at them both.

She was wearing a green dress, brown lace up boots, and had beautiful blonde hair with a white flower in it. She looked about his age, and had cold, calculating deep blue eyes that seemed to peirce into his very soul. She was quite beautiful,actually, and obviously didn't belong there. Something in the back of his mind clicked. There was something faintly familiar about her, but he couldn't place it. Rather than ponder it further, he tried to keep calm and keep a blank expression. It very dangerous to show much emotion around the higher-ups, even John who at this point wsn't at all very powerful in comparison to the others.

"Her name is Daisy. The dwarf seemed to take a bit of a liking to her earlier, so she's essentially the bait if the first plan doesn't work. They'll quite certainly come after her. Until then, we need someone to keep an eye on her, and since you've seemed rather bored lately, I thought you might like to take of the job. You can do what you with with her as long as she doesn't run off and is alive. Knowing you, that won't be much of a problem." He tossed the key to Israphel and left, closing the door behind him.

A spell of dizziness overtook Israphel for a moment, and his head felt like it was about to explode. Whatever that had started to click in his subconsious earlier slowly began to take shape.

_A girl about seven years old looked down at him smiling. She had long brown hair and was wearing a green dress. She spoke, but it felt as if he were underwater. The sounds were muffled and he could not understand._

He came back into reality and scolded himself for... Whatever he had just let happen. He shook his head to try and clear it, but was still very confused. He sighed, likely for the billionth time that day, and pushed it away as best as he could.

Daisy was still glaring something fierce, but with an eyebrow raised questioningly. Israphel walk over and pulled the cloth from her mouth.

"You terrible, evil, dirty, son of a..." She hissed at him, but he simply ignored her and continued to untie her. Seeing her insults ineffective she trailed off.

"I apologize for your mistreatment, but I'm afraid there's not much I can do to help," his words were met with a sharp slap to his face and another glare. He felt something warm trickle down his face. He touched it, and his hand came away red. It wasn't his blood. She hadn't hit him near hard enough. Took her hand, and found a deep cut. "You're hurt," He muttered.

"Of course I'm hurt! Did you think I just sat there and let you monsters take me?"

"Of course not. No one in their right mind would," Israphel replied, taking a strip of cloth and wrapping it around the wound. "We'll need to put a proper bandage on it later, but this'll stop the bleeding for now. I'll leave you alone now, I'm sure you're already quite sick off seeing my face. I'll check on you sometime tommorow."

"Wait," Daisy said.

"Yes?"

"Who are you?"

"Israphel. My name's Israphel." He stuttered. The look of horror that appeared on her face as he left puzzled him. He was fairly certain the woman hadn't lived in Terrorvale while he was alive. He didn't think he'd seen her before.

What on earth was going on on the surface?


	5. Rumours

"Israphel. My name's Israphel" Daisy stumbled backwards in shock as he stuttered the words. Did he just say... _Israphel? _As in _the _Israphel? As in, The man that was supposedly responsible for all grief and dissapearances throughout Minecraftia? She sat down as her thoughts raced.

This Israphel... Yes, she'd heard of him. There were few in Minecraftia who hadn't heard the name somewhere at some point in time. He was, to many, the Reverend's dead son. Supposedly he'd gone out hunting alone and had been found dead later that day. Killed by creepers, they say, though a rumour had started not long ago that something more sinister than a simple accident had occured. She wasn't too sure of the details really. As far as she'd been concerned, they'd been nothing more than rumors. Nothing worth her time, at least.

Essentially, as far as she understood, he was the one people blamed for anything that happened that was strange or left without explaination otherwise, especially the recent dissapearances. He apparently _did_ have some connection to the dissapearances. Daisy herself had just been dragged away from her villiage, never to be seen again, she feared.

The myths described him as a heartless, intimidating puppetmaster that was to be feared. He could manipulate a person's thoughts so that they were loyal to him, and had unmatched skill with a bow and arrow. But... This man... He couldn't be any different. He seemed rather softspoken, and he looked more like a sad puppy than an intimidating, evil, _thing_.

She sighed and flopped back on her bed in frustration. This had be some sort of trap or something. He couldn't possibly be so nice. He was _too_ nice, actually. He'd apologized for her being kidnapped, tended to the cut on her hand calmly, even after she'd gone and slapped him, and had let her throw insults at him. Daisy wasn't even supposed to be evil, and she would've punched any idiot who had the audacity to slap her and speak to her like that. Mind you, she was more of a violent, loud sort of person when she was angry, but _still._ Besides, Israphel had a bloody _cult_ named after him. You don't just have people name cults after you, you know. Yes. This was definately a trap. They were trying to get her to put her guard down, get her to trust him or something.

It was a very convincing trap though... Israphel sure as heck could do an extremely good sad, tortured puppy face. Maybe it wasn't a trap. No, it was totally a trap. But, what if it wasn't?

"Gah! Why am I even so confused by this? They're trying to drive me insane aren't they? **Well it's working**!" Daisy growled before breaking into hysterical sobs.

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"I wouldn't get too attached to her. The girl, I mean," a voice behind Israphel chuckled. He turned to face a man who appeared to be a dwarf. He wasn't too sure who he was, though. "They'll likely kill her, you know. I wouldn't mind doing the crazy broad in myself, really. I hear she bit one of the people we sent after her. Very uncooperative." the dwarf laughed.

"I know." Israphel whispered as the strange dwarven man passed. It occured to him that the man may have been King Finbar of Stoneholm, and he shrugged. He'd heard that he'd joined recently.

_I should be careful not to get too attached to her though. He is right about that._ He thought with a sigh. He then mentally kicked himself. He really ought to stop sighing so much.

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A/N: Short chapter again I'm afraid. The next one'll be longer though, FOR REALZ this time. xP


	6. Chapter 6

Israphel walked down the stone corridor towards Daisy's room. One of the higher-ups had seen him in the hall earlier and told her that they'd be taking her back to the Overworld for a bit, as John's original plan had failed. They'd expected him to fail, really. The fact that John was something of an incompetent fool was the only thing Israphel and the men over him would ever agree on. Israphel remembered quite vividly how little attention that John had paid him when he was little. If he had simply overheard by accident what they planned to do to him, he could've easily run off into the woods for at least a week before he was missed.

_I should have run. Why didn't I run?_

He was jolted out of his thoughts when a sharp yelp echoed against the stone walls.

"Get your dirty hands off of me you- ah!" He heard Daisy screech. "I said let go of me!" Israphel broke into a run. He stopped before he reached the door and walked in calmly. He found a young man trying to tie Daisy back up, probably to take her to the Terrorvale castle. Daisy was, of course, making this extremely difficult for him. His hand was bleeding where she had apparently bitten him or something. Israphel didn't recognise the man, but he could tell he was just one of the random people who had decided to join. If he played his cards right, Israphel could probably get him to do what he said, even though he had no official authority.

"I'm only following orders," The man growled. "You're making this much harder than it needs to be."

"And what orders might those be?" Israphel asked nonchalantly. Daisy looked over to him, raising an eyebrow. She obviously hadn't quite figured out what to make of him. Her expression made him smile slightly.

"They want me to take her to the portal to the Terrorvale castle,"

"I wasn't aware that we had a portal to there," Israphel said, fully aware that there was, indeed, a portal in that general area. He wasn't supposed to know of course, he'd stumbled upon a couple of weeks before. He was able to escape to the overworld for a few days before it was noticed.

"We didn't, but some idiots accidently built one that linked nearby. Dumb luck, I suppose. Well, I better get going before they start to wonder where I am. It didn't take me long after I joined to realize that they don't particularly like it when people take their time doing things,"

"Yes, yes, this is very true. Don't worry about her, I'll take care of it. You might want to see about your hand,"

"Thanks. Who are you anyway? You look familiar..." The man asked.

"Oh, no one important," Israphel lied. "Now go off and take care of that bleeding. Wouldn't want it to get infected or anything." The man nodded and left.

"So are _you_ going to try and tie me up now?" Daisy asked, "Because if that's what you're planning on doing, I'll have to kill you."

"Now why would you do that? Seems like a harsh thing to do to a man who's only following orders."

"Yes, but they're not _your _orders, now are they? They were that guy's."

"Well, I guess that is a fair point. It wouldn't do you any good to try, though. You couldn't kill me if I _let_ you. There have been a few with the ability to do so, of course. Three or four chosen people here and there. Some never came to realize that they had the ability, some died trying to get to me and the ones before me. You can hurt me, of course, I've got plenty of scars to prove it, but you couldn't kill me,"

"Really?"

"Yeah. Anywho, we should get going. I won't tie you up or anything, but you can't run off. Wouldn't want to, really. This place is an insane maze of portals and hallways. You'd get terribly lost if you tried. I'd also advise you to keep your mouth shut around others. They're all rather short tempered. The slightest little things always set them off. It's rediculous, really."

"I've noticed."

"Ah, Israphel," He heard the familiar voice greet. He absolutely _loathed_ that voice. John smiled and continued, "I thought we sent that newbie to get her. I guess it wasn't a great idea in hindsight, she is rather uncooperative, but I guess either way the two of you are here. Two birds with one stone!" he went on to tell them about how they were going to wait at the castle, and then when the two people who were going to try to rescue her showed up, Israphel would shoot arrows at them and kill them.

"Why do I have to kill them? Can't you get someone else?"

"Well, you're apparently the only one who can get the girl to stop being completely defiant. Besides, it'll be good for one of the outsiders to see the leader of the Cult of Israphel. Strike some fear into their hearts!"

"The what?" Israphel asked, furrowing his brow.

"Oh, I'll tell you later. There are a couple of the larger beasts in the castle that will assist you, and remember to be careful. These two can actually kill you, so don't be reckless." And with that, he sent them on their way.

"I can't help but wonder whose idea it was to put him in charge of this? I mean, it works for us, because I could fail and just blame him, but still. And what's this cult thing about? No one bothered to tell me any of this, you know?" Israphel ranted as they stepped out of the exit. They found themselves in a cave decorated with flame and jack o' lanterns. outside the mouth of the cave was a green landscape of trees and flowers, with patches of snow from the last winter still covering bits of a mountain.

"This place looks familiar. It's the forest east of Terrorvale, no?" Daisy smiled.

"I forget the compass direction, but it _is_ right outside one of the larger forests. The one I used to go hunting in with..." Israphel trailed off. Well, as much as I'd absolutely love to enjoy the view, we ought to get going. There's a tunnel we could use... I think I'd prefer to take the other way, though."

"The other way?"

"Remember when I told that guy I didn't know there was a portal here?" Daisy nodded. "I lied. I found it a bit before they did and slipped out here on occasion. I found a secret way to the castle. I didn't use it much, because why on earth would I want to go there? Anyway, it's more interesting than that tunnel they're expecting us to take."

Daisy nodded and followed him through the forest, explaining to him the rumors that had gone about during the past few years. They reached the entrance to the cave that held the castle.

"I'm sure you have many questions, but I'll have to answer them when we get back to the Nether. I don't want anyone to overhear anything." Israphel told her. Daisy nodded, confused as to why he'd be so worried about him being kind to her and answering a few questions. "Well, here goes nothing."


	7. Chapter 7

"So what exactly are you planning to do?" Daisy asked in frustration. There had only turned out to be a few uninportant people at the castle, so Israphel hadn't objected to her speaking with him. He'd made absolutely no effort to begin a conversation, of course.

"Who said I had a plan?" Israphel mumbled as he checked over his bow. They hadn't let him touch it in what felt like forever. He continued mumbling to himself. "Now, I have to make this a believable fight, of course, but I don't want to actually _kill_ these two. If I do that, the world essentially ends."

"Why don't you just let them kill you? They live, I get rescued, and Minecraftia is safe." Daisy suggested.

Israphel shook his head. "It appears that you have overestimated my value to this project. You see, if I do that now, they'll have enough time to replace me. We have to wait until it get's to the point where if I fail, the whole thing goes down. I apologize that this may be an inconvenience to you, but if we don't do it this way, they'll just track you down and kill you after you've escaped," he explained, his voice occasionally trailing off as he was distracted by his work. He obviously liked the bow quite a lot.

"So what do _I _do?"

"Stand and look pretty, I guess. Do the whole 'damsel-in-distress' thing." Daisy shot him a glare. "Well, I don't know! I can't think of anything else you could do that would be helpful at this point. Besides, the "look pretty" part shouldn't be difficult at all for you."

Daisy rolled her eyes. "Whatever." she muttered. Israphel chuckled and motioned for her to follow him to the roof of the castle.

The heroes ran down the stairs leading to the cavern where the castle was built. There appeared to be another man with them, likely the "collateral damage" John had mentioned before. He looked only a few years older than he and Daisy, but his face was wrinkled, likely from years of hardship and grief. The man did look a bit familiar, actually, but anyone who had lived in Terrorvale during his childhood was likely to have met him briefly at some point or another, so he shrugged it off like most of the traces of old memories that occasionally haunted him. He looked towards Daisy as he readied his bow. She rolled her eyes before screaming to them for help. A slight chuckle escaped as he pulled back the bowstring, aiming just past one of the heroes. The trio shouted hysterically to one another as they charged blindly towards the castle. Israphel sent the monsters after them, and as he had expected, they easily dispatched them.

"This is the part where we run," Israphel said as they entered the stone building. Daisy followed behind with a playful smile. "We probably need to take the shortcut, eh?" Daisy nodded and ran into the tunnel. Israphel snuffed out the torches as they went, explaining that he was instructed to do so. "Why in Notch's name they'd ask me to do that, I have no clue. It's probably just one of those things they decided to do on a whim."

"This does seem to be a rather crazy operation you've got here." Daisy replied.

"Well, most of the people in charge _are_ out of their bloody minds," Israphel laughed as they exited the tunnel. It ended in a sharp dropoff, and he jumped carefully to the cave floor seven or eight feet below. He'd done it a few times before, so he could land fairly safely. "Here, I'll catch you," He called back to Daisy. "Unless, of course, you'd like to attempt to land safely by yourself. I don't suppose it's _too _far down."

"Oh, I'm sure I'll be fine," Daisy said before leaping off of the ledge herself. She landed relatively okay, but stumbled as she hit the stone. Israphel took her arm to steady her before she fell on her face. "I told you I'd be fine." she smirked.

"Well, you certainly are the brave one, I suppose. Not afraid of heights by any means." Israphel chuckled sarcastically. Daisy responded with a playful punch to his right shoulder.

"Don't forget, you've still got to answer my questions." She reminded.

"Yes, so I do. As soon as we get back."

* * *

><p>"That was actually kind of fun," Daisy commented as she collapsed into a chair with a yawn. "Relatively speaking, of course."<p>

"It _was_ pretty amusing to watch them react." Israphel replied.

"It was even more funny to see the four or five people who were left in the castle scatter in panic when the heroes got close to the castle," She watched as Israphel walked to the bookshelf in the corner and thumbed through a book, nodding. "Israphel..." she muttered. "Bet your friends had trouble pronouncing that when you were little, eh, Izzy? I bet you hated your parents for giving you such a strange name." A slight frown passed over his face.

"No, not exactly. I never got to meet them actually. Well, I guess I did, but I wasn't around for long enough to get to know or remember them. I was taken when I was very little," he replied. "Either way, it wasn't too much of a problem, really. My friends just called me Izzy, actually. At least, I think."

"You _think_?" Daisy furrowed her brow slightly.

"Well, I don't really remember much of my childhood, which is why you should never _ever_ let these psychopaths mess with your brain. I remember some basic bits and pieces and simple facts, but very few specific events."

"I see," Daisy frowned. "Was that why you trailed off earlier? Because you couldn't remember?"

"When?"

"When we left the cave. You said you went hunting in those woods with someone, but you never said who."

"Oh," Israphel's frown grew, as if he was recalling a painful memory. Perhaps he was, Daisy considered. It wouldn't be a surprise, really. "No, it's not that I forgot, actually."

"Really?" Daisy asked. "I guess you don't need to tell me if you don't want." She noted his distant expression, and decided it was probably a good idea to not ask questions.

"Her name was Maria," he said softly. "Her name was Maria, and she's probably dead," Israphel looked Daisy over, deep in thought. "You remind me of her. A lot, actually," he turned towards the door. "I'm sorry. You were happy for a moment earlier, but I just ruined that, didn't I? I... I should leave. Sorry."

Daisy watched him leave with a frown. He really shouldn't have been sorry. She _had _brought it up, after all. He looked like he needed some space, though, so she decided to let him go. She decided that she would find some way to fix this, so he could be happy and everyone could be safe. And so she could get the hell out of this place.


	8. Chapter 8

"Izzy?" Daisy frowned. "I can call you Izzy, right?" Israphel nodded. It'd been about a week since the Terrorvale castle thing. Not much had been going on, because the heroes had gone missing, so Israphel had spent a lot of time with Daisy, seeing as she was the only relatively sane person around to talk to. "Why am I still alive?" she asked.

Israphel returned her frown with a puzzled expression. "That's... An interesting question. What do you mean?"

"The old man, John was it? He said that I was here to be the 'live bait' or whatever. Now that that's over, they don't need me, so why haven't they killed me?" She asked, a hint of fear in her eyes.

"A good question. I guess it means that they've got something else planned for you. Whether or not that's a good thing is yet to be established. On the bright side, you're still alive. On the other hand, and I don't mean to scare you, there are plenty of things worse than death that they could have planned," he smiled. "Though, something tells me that you'll get through this just fine."

"What makes you think that?"

Israphel shrugged. "Well, the odds in general are turned in the heroes' favor. This is the first time thast I know of that two have been sent at the same time, and they have more support from Minecraftia as a whole than usual. Then, of course, there's the matter of _you_. I'm fairly sure you could take down more than half of these idiots on your own if you had to. Has anyone ever told you that you're a really violent person when you're angry?"

"Oh shut up," she glared. "I'm not _that_ violent."

"You've threatened to kill the majority of us, bitten at _least_ two people, and I think I heard the other day that you broke one of those people who kidnapped you's arm."

"Well, still," Daisy grumbled. "It's not like I'm that great at the whole fighting thing. If I was, then I wouldn't be here."

"Well, I _did _exaggerate a bit, I suppose, but I do doubt that anyone who tried to harm you would get away unscathed. There are actually a few people around here that are scared of you." Daisy perked up a bit.

"Really now?"

"Yeah, really," He looked around the room. "You must get terribly bored in here. You know, they didn't actually say you had to stay here, just that you couldn't run off."

"So?" Daisy raised an eyebrow.

"So, we could probably get away with leaving for a bit." Israphel smiled.

"Really?"

"I doubt we could do it more than once or twice before they say something, but as long as we get back before we're missed..."

"And you're sure they won't get all upset and angry and stuff, right?"

"Oh, they'll _definitely_ be angry if they find out."

"In that case, I'm in."

"I thought you'd be."

* * *

><p>Daisy smiled as she ran through the forest, Israphel following behind. She darted nimbly through the trees, getting farther from him every second. She'd quickly made a game of running away from him. She would come back, of course. No need to cause too much trouble. She just wanted to have a little fun. She came to a clearing, and she quickly climbed a tree and hid. An amused grin spread across her face as Israphel came into the clearing, a confused look on his face, wondering where she'd dissapeared to.<p>

"Boo!" Israphel jumped slightly as the voice behind him giggled. He turned around to see Daisy hanging upside down from a branch at eye level. He smiled, raising an eyebrow. "Come on, Izzy. I was just having fun." She said. He hook his head.

"What am I going to do with you?" He grinned.

"Keep me and give me nice things." She ordered jokingly.

"Give you nice things, eh?" he laughed. He plucked a daisy from the ground and handed it to her. "Will this do?" Daisy smiled and nodded, taking the flower for which she was named and putting it in her hair. "You're quite the bundle of energy all of a sudden." She rolled her eyes and shrugged.

"Just needed a little fresh air, I guess."

"Well we ought to get back. It's almost dusk."

"Who uses the word 'dusk?'"

"I do." Israphel replied as they headed back.

* * *

><p>Israphel walked down the hallway away from Daisy's room. As he turned a corner, he found the same young man who he'd met the past week, the one Daisy had bitten. He had a puzzled and frustrated expression, and Israphel wondered what was causing this.<p>

"Hello there, friend. It's good to see you again. May I ask what's troubling you?"

"I was sent by John to send someone to him. Guess who he sent me to find." he replied.

"Who?"

"Lord Israphel! Crazy, isn't it?" Israphel raised an eyebrow, remembering that he hadn't bothered to mention who he was earlier. "So I tried to tell him that the new guys like me hadn't had much to do with Israphel, and that I didn't know what he looked like or where he was, but he wouldn't listen. He just pointed in this general direction and sent me off." he sighed and looked back to Israphel, who was finding the situation mildly amusing, though, he felt bad for him.

"Well, I guess it's a good thing you ran into me, then. I apologize. John's not neccesarily our most competent member. He _really_ doesn't know how to handle rookies, it seems. I appear to have neglected to mention this before, but _I'm_ Israphel."

"Really?" The man's eyes widened.

"Oh, you ought not act so imtimidated. I'm not some scary deity sort of creature, despite what they've probably been telling you. Don't go spreading that around though. You'll get yourself in trouble. Now, where were you supposed to send me?"

The young man stuttered out John's location, and Israphel went to meet him with a sigh. Poor misguided rookies.

"Israphel," John greeted. "I see the new guy managed to find you.

"More like _I_ found _him," _Israphel corrected. "You need to stop sending rookies to do things they can't."

"Yes, yes, you're right," John said, pushing away his words. "I have a job I need you to do on the Overworld. A little bit of destruction while the heroes are away."


	9. Chapter 9

Israphel stared at the carnage that used to be the heroes' home, or the "Yogcave" as they called it. Whatever the heck that was. They'd planned to destroy it, of course, but perhaps not so... Thoroughly. They'd set off only a few bundles of explosives when some senile old man showed up and nagged them about the violence of the explosion, or rather, the lack thereof.

"You call that an explosion?" he'd asked before proceding to flatten the landscape using explosive and firey magic. The old wizard then teleported off quite pleased with himself saying, "Nothing short of a violent plane crash could do any more damage. "

"Well that was... convinient." John noted before gesturing for Israphel to follow him back to the portal. The portal and the area around it were the only things left unscathed at the moment, the old man not appearing to have noticed it. Glancing back to the flames one last time, he was glad that the heroes were off lost in the middle of nowhere and not inside the home they'd made in the mountain.

* * *

><p>"He <em>what<em>?" Daisy laughed. She'd been curious about where he'd gone off to and why he smelled like burnt gunpowder. He'd told her about the wizard and how he'd single handedly all but flattened the mountain.

"He just showed up, blew everything up, then left." Israphel summarized.

"That must have been Fumblemore! He lives in Mistral, where I used to live before I moved to Terrorvale. The silly old man probably won't remember all of this after tomorrow." She snickered.

"I see." Israphel smiled. "Hey, you wanna go walk around for a bit? It's not a good day to go up to the Overworld, but I can show you some of the rooms that are usually empty."

Daisy shrugged and nodded. "Okay."

They walked through the stone hallways, which were much emptier than usual. Israphel shrugged this off, not thinking too much about it. He and Daisy talked about the pranks she'd played on Fumblemore when she was younger, and about how she'd loved to watch the arguments between he and his brother Swampy. They came across a room marked "Library" and Israphel opened the door for them to enter.

It was nothing special, mostly a bunch of books that no one down there cared about, but it had floor to ceiling bookshelves filled with books on many subjects. Three whole walls of books. Israphel enjoyed reading, so this room interested him. Daisy also seemed to be interested, as she ran her fingers over the rows of books, occasionally pulling one off the shelf and reading a page or two. She seemed particularly captivated by a fantasy novel with a worn blue cover.

"Do you think anyone will notice if I take this?" She asked.

"Probably not." Israphel replied. Daisy smiled, and they left the room.

As he came back into the hallway, Israphel saw a flash of green and brown disappear around the corner, the sound of small, hurried footsteps echoed off of the stone. He looked to Daisy. "You saw that too, right?" He asked. Daisy nodded. They followed carefully around the corner and found a little girl wearing a green dress with long brown hair braided neatly into a ponytail. She couldn't be more than five years old. He approached her calmly. "Are you lost, dear?" He asked gently and quietly. She nodded. What was she doing here? "Where did you come from?"

"The purple and black thing." She said, pointing in the general direction of one of the portals.

"Oh dear. Did you wander through it on accident?" He asked. She nodded. As he questioned the girl, the sound of urgent footsteps and heavy breathing grew towards them quickly. A young woman ran around the corner and scooped the girl up, kicking him away in the process. Israphel staggered back, slightly dizzy from the blow.

"Oh Bella, are you okay? Did he hurt you?" The woman asked.

"No ,Mama I'm okay." The little girl whose name was apparently Bella replied.

Israphel's heart skipped a beat. That voice, it was familiar. _Very_ familiar. He regained his balance and looked up at the woman that was now looking right back at him with eyes widened. She too had brown hair and tanned skin, but it was much shorter and fell loosely around her face. She had a scar running across her cheek, and familiar dark brown eyes.

"Maria?" He breathed.

"Dear Notch, is that you Izzy?" She asked. They stared at each other, speechless. "Who's this?" Maria said, breaking the silence. She gestured towards Daisy.

"I'm Daisy Duke," Daisy replied. "You're Maria, yes? Izzy said he thought you were dead."

"I _did _think she was dead," Israphel said. "I thought they'd killed you."

"But, Izzy," Maria frowned. "I saw it. You were dead. You weren't breathing, and you were so scorched and bloody." Her hands trembled slightly as her right hand touched his face, as if to make sure that he was solid and not some figment of her imagination. Her hand moved down to his chest and found his steady heartbeat and breathing. "I... I don't understand." she murmured.

"It's okay. I don't either." Israphel looked down at his feet before moving his gaze to the child. "She's your daughter?" Maria nodded.

"She yours, Israphel?" Daisy asked, raising an eyebrow. As impossible as it was, Israphel grew even more pale. The girl did look to be the right age to be...

Daisy saw his reaction and backpedaled. "Er, I was just joking, you know. There's no way she could be yours. Is she?"

Maria laughed. "No, I'm afraid she's not. Bella's not even mine, technically. Her parents died a few years ago, so I took her in. Her parents helped me get away from those monsters. They were murdered for it. I feel so terrible about it. Taking care of her is the least I can do."

"What are you two doing down here?" Israphel asked.

"Bella here happened upon a portal in a cave not far from here and decided to explore," She gave a scolding look to the girl. "We're on our way to a place a good ways away from the known borders of Minecraftia. I have some explorer friends out their that we can stay with. We'll be safe."

Israphel nodded. "Good. You ought to get going before someone sees you."

Maria stepped forward and hugged Israphel. "Bye Izzy."

"Goodbye," He called back as they walked away. "Be safe." He was relieved that his friend was alive and going some place safe.

"She seems nice," Daisy commented with a smile. "I see why you like her. She used to be your lady friend?"

"Oh, of course not." Israphel replied quickly.

"Really now?" Daisy replied, not convinced.

"Well, _maybe_."

"I see," Daisy laughed. Pulling Israphel by his hand. "Let's go back. I wanna read more of this book."

* * *

><p>AN: I realized I didn't give much closure to what happened to Maria, so I did that here. Not saying she won't show up at all later, just that the majority of her little arc is over. I'mma write a chapter from her perspective detailing her escape and how she came to care for Bella etc. Hope you enjoyed the chapter


	10. Chapter 10

Maria's Story:

Maria faded into conciousness, her head throbbing. The world spun uncertainly around her. She forced the dimly lit room into focus, and found herself bound, gagged, and... _Hanging from the ceiling_? The ropes that restrained her wrists and feet were attached to yet another pair of ropes that went through an intricate pully system. She was suspended in the air mostly upright, but she did lean forward slightly. Maria looked down and found that she wasn't dangling above a hard stone floor, but a small pool of dark water. She cocked her head to the side, slightly puzzled for a moment. She glanced over the rest of the room and found many other unpleasant looking objects and machine sort of things. The room just screamed "Torture."

This was going to be... Interesting.

"Well look who's awake." A silky voice said from behind her. A man wearing black emerged from the shadows in front of her. This confused Maria. The voice had come from behind her right? Were there _two_ people here? "Oh I assure you that you and I are very much alone, dear." He said, as if reading her thoughts. An ominous chuckle echoed from all directions and the man dissapeared, only to reappear inches from her face, floating in midair. Piercing read eyes looked deep into hers like he was diving deep into her soul. Chills went down her spine. He drifted away with a slight smile and introduced himself. "I am the next to most recent holder of the power of the Sands. My name? Well, it won't really matter by the time I'm done here. I hear tell that the newest one was brought in not too long ago. Once he learns to accept this power, he'll be just a powerful as I. Perhaps even more so. The_ lucky _kid has been chosen by Lehparsi to rule all of Minecraftia for his time. He showed up at the very climax of this organization's plans. **The Sands envy the boy," **The obvious distaste and envy in his voice as he said the words sent chills down her spine, but not as much as the way the strange man's voice echoed and seemingly multiplied as he mention "the Sands." He ignored her reaction and continued.** "**In a matter of days I myself will join them. It's the cycle, you see. Every twenty years a new one is chosen, and the old fades into the entity that is the Sands. I understand that this likely makes little sense to you, and you need to understand that the reason that I am going to explain these things to you is that you will not likely survive the next forty-eight hours," The man chuckled madly as he landed gracefully on the stone from his floating state. "Besides, it's also unlikely that you will be able to pay much attention to the things I tell you, or even possibly remember them, what with all the pain," he walked over to the lever that controlled the ropes and pulleys. "Now, this is how this is going to work. I hear that you've seen something you shouldn't have, so I have to get rid of you. I get to do this in any method I wish," the man smiled. "We're going to start off nice and slow. Nothing too terrible yet. "

He pulled the lever all the way back in a quick motion, and Maria free fell from her spot ten feet from the ground into the pool of freezing dark water. She yelped in shock as the icy water overloaded her senses. The agony lasted for mere seconds before she was yanked out of the cold abyss. She gasped for breath, shivers ran up and down her body, and the man smiled in sadistic delight. "I think water is my favorite way to inflict pain. Think about it. It's one of the most important elements in sustaining life, yet can cause a good deal of agony in the right hands. Don't you find it funny? I do," He unsheathed a small knife and nimbly jumped and perched on a stone pillar at her eye level. He reached out to the rope that boud her hands. He cut the bit that held her upright, and Maria fell into an upside-down position, dangling by her ankles now. "And water also holds a lot of hidden, burried fear. Imagine, sinking deep into cold, dark water unable to return to the surface. Your chest soon feel as if it will explode after you deprive your brain of oxygen. Your lungs fill with water, and you die alone in the abyss. You know, they used similar methods during the witch hunts before magic was accepted. Very effective if done right," He chuckled and continued dunking her into the water. He went on to talk about the plans that they had for the future of the known world, but as he'd predicted, she couldn't proccess hardly any of it. The numbing cold caused her thoughts to blur. She recalled him mentioning something about a beast, but that was all. He didn't seem to care, as if he just wanted to ramble about something to pass the time. Maria soon faded into blissful unconciousness, letting the blackness numb the icy stabs of pain. Only seconds later, she felt powerful shocks of eletricity course through her, jolting her roughly back into reality. She shreiked in pain as the sparks ran up her spine. He laughed. "Another reason water is my method of choice. Wouldn't want you to fall asleep and miss all the fun."

* * *

><p>Maria sobbed quietly as she sat alone in the small dark room. She'd been trapped in the Nether for five days, enduring torture and pain. The psychopath in charge of her had dissolved into part of the Sands as he'd said he would before, and they'd left her in here to rot. She ached from head to toe, and she gently fingered the cut on her cheek, her hand coming away red. She tried to pull herself together like she'd done many times before, but with little success. She had been slowly spiraling into madness, the lines between reality and her imagination blurring. Realizing this, Maria took a deep breath and waited for her nerves to calm down. She reorganized her brain and began to find a bit more clarity in her thoughts. She brought herself to her feet and ran her hand across the cool stone until her fingers brushed against the steel door that connected this room to the steel corridor outside. She knew there was a portal out there. Feet from her cell. She could hear it. She tried the door, knowing that it would be locked. It was always locked. She sighed and sat back down.<p>

_One day they'll forget,_ She thought. _One day they'll leave it unlocked_.

With this thought, she drifted into sleep. Maria didn't have to wait days for someone to accidentally forget, however. Only hours later, a young man, in one final act of pure defiance, bolted down the hall, unlocking doors at random. The prisoners that could ran for the portal to the Overworld and laped through it as alarms blared. Maria followed. As the group of escapees exited the portal, they found themselves in a dense forest. They scattered as guards flooded out after them. Many were recaptured, a few were killed, and even fewer escaped altogether. After sprinting for miles, Maria hid behind a birch tree with a thick trunk and closed her eyes, panting. She recalled how similar this was to the events that happened only over a week ago, when she'd run through the forest near Terrorvale, away from where Israphel's limp form laid. She heard a twig snap, and her eyes snapped open. A guard stood meters away from her, searching the forest for the stray prisoners. They couldn't let them escape and compromise the plan.

_Please don't see me. Please don't let him see me. _Maria thought as she pressed herself against the tree. The guard didn't obey her thoughts, however, and quickly found her among the plants. Maria bolted, forcing herself to ignore the pain of overexerting herself. The guard soon caught up to the exhausted girl and grabbed her by the wrist. Maria shrieked as he drew his sword, ready to run her through with it, squeezing her eyes shut. She then heard a loud shout and the metallic sound of two blades clashing. The guard's grip on her arm disappeared, and she opened her eyes to find another man standing over the guard, who was now lying in a pool of blood.

"Are you okay?" The man asked. Maria tried to reply, but found she couldn't, as her exhaustion had caught up with her. She felt very dizzy, and began to stagger before she fell altogether and passed out.

Maria woke up slowly, noting her strange surroundings. The room she was in wasn't strange itself. It was a fairly normal living room, and she was lying on a couch, her head throbbing as always. She managed to sit up, and looked around groggily. She heard a feminine voice say, "Look, she's awake." A woman with fair skin and brown hair that was a shade darker than Maria's brown-red hair walked towards her. She looked to be in her mid to late twenties, and she held a baby wrapped in a purple blanket. She seemed to be the mother of the house, and this comforted her for some strange reason, causing her to feel like she could trust her.

"Are you okay?" She asked Maria before biting her lip. "Oh, that's a stupid question. Of course you're not. You looked starved and you're cut to ribbons. Don't worry. You're safe here. I'm Kathrine, and this is my daughter Bella. She's almost one year old," Kathrine smiled. "The person who found you and brought you here is my husband, Mark."

"Where am I?"

"You're in a sort of pioneer settlement. We're a group of explorers. There are about ten other families with us, but most of them or moving on in a few days to the next destination. We and a few others are going to stick around to help get the village started and on it's feet." Kathrine explained.

"Well look who's awake," Mark said as he entered the room. Maria could properly look him over now. He was a tall, well-built man with short dirty blond hair. He looked to be a guard of the town, as he was wearing a good amount of armor and had his sword on him. He might have been patrolling the area when he heard her scream. "We found a portal a mile or two from here. We destroyed it and positioned some simple guard towers a bit farther out from the village. A few extra guards are staying behind just in case. We'll double security for a time, just to be safe," he sighed. "This is the sort of stuff that we left the known lands of Minecraftia to get away from."

"Well, we certainly run into it a lot less now. It's been nearly two years since something like this has happened, and I don't think they were planning to attack us from there. I agree we should be careful, though. They seem to get a bit testy when someone sees something they didn't plan on them seeing." Kathrine replied.

"Yes, exactly. We're taking extra measures to hide our maps as well. If they do decide to attack, we want to be able to disappear to the next settlement on the route without being followed. Only the highest officials can have them now. Since I'm Captain of the Guard, I get to keep mine," Mark looked back towards Maria. "Forgive me for being impolite. Why, I haven't even introduced myself. My name is Mark."

"Yes, Kathrine told me. I'm Maria." she replied.

"Tell me, Maria, what were you doing all beat up alone in the forest?" he asked.

"Escaping. I was captured by those people who built the portal."

"Really?" Kathrine asked incrediously. "Escaping is very rare, based on what we've seen and heard."

"Do you have any family? Where are you from?" Mark asked.

"I'm from Terrorvale. It's a very small village. I... I don't have any family." Maria said. Even if her family was alive, it would probably be best for her to disappear.

"I see," Mark frowned. "Would you like to stay with us? You'll be safe here."

"Okay," she replied. "That is, if it's no trouble for you."

"Of course not. We can't very well throw a nice girl like you out into the street. Besides, it couldn't hurt to have an extra pair of hands to help out." Kathrine smiled.

From that day on, Maria was known as Kathrine and Mark's daughter. The village thrived, for once, everything was just fine. The only clue to her past life being the scar that ran across her cheek. She still had nightmares and wasn't too fond of swimming, but those things gradually faded away.

Her favorite memory was of Bella's first birthday. She and the small girl bonded very quickly, and Maria turned out to be a wonderful big sister. She helped Kathrine bake a small cake for Bella's birthday, which she scarfed within seconds. She and Kathrine laughed at the amount of icing smeared over Bella's face for a few moments before cleaning it up. Mark had come home a bit early from a patrol to spend some extra time with them for her first birthday. He picked up the child, and she squeeled in delight.

"My beautiful little girl is a whole year old!" He laughed. "That's why we named you Bella, you know that? Because you're already such a pretty little girl." He raised an eyebrow and looked over to Kathrine. "You know, we're gonna need a bigger yard."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we'll have to have _some_ place to bury all the sleezy boys I'll have to kill when they start coming after my daughters," he joked. "Poor Maria's already getting mobbed by those new boys. Though if you have to choose one of _them _take Joseph. He's the best lookin' out of that unfotunate bunch." He said with a wink.

"Oh Mark," Maria sighed. She didn't call them Mom and Dad yet. She would some day, for sure, but not yet.

"I'm not too worried about you sweeheart. You can fight off any stupid boys by yourself, now can't you?" Kathrine asked.

They all laughed, and life continued like normal. Everything was fine, they were all happy.

Everything was normal.

Unfortunately, as Maria knew, the people she'd escaped from didn't just let people go. People like her especially. The ones who'd seen things they shouldn't have, and in her case, she'd seen something major. She didn't know why the fact that she'd seen them murder Izzy was so important, but they seemed care an awful lot about it. They needed to silence her. Of course, they couldn't just kill _her. _They needed to take the whole village down. Who knows how many others she'd told? Maria, of course, had told nobody. She didn't want to endanger anyone around her, but they didn't like taking chances, so one night, they attacked.

There was panic and confusion. No one quite understood what was going on. As flaming arrows screamed through the sky and screams rang out in the night, the only thing people were sure about was that they were being attacked. The guards fought them off for hours, but the attackers managed to push into the village. They slaughtered every man, woman, and child they saw, and burned the village to the ground. As always, a few escaped, scattering into the wilderness. These attackers were a bit more sloppy than the ones she'd ran from before and didn't chase after them.

Maria was one of those who got away, managing to scale a tree with thick branches and hide in the forest's shadowy canopy until it passed. She took Bella with her. Mark and Kathrine had died in the attack, but she was able to save Bella. She quietly comforted the girl as the flames raged just meters away from their hiding place. She knew where they had to go next. She unfolded the crumpled parchment in her pack. A map. A map that showed many settlements up ahead far, far away from here. They would go north until they reached the last village in the string of villages that carved a path through the wild.

* * *

><p>"Mama, where are we going now?" Bella asked as they set off for the next village. She'd taken to calling Maria "Mama" pretty quickly, though she'd never claimed to be her mother, but since Bella said she was Mama, she was Mama. They travelled from village to village, staying for a month or two before moving on to the next. Along the way, Bella had happened among a pig that she named Flower and then begged Maria to let her keep it. Maria sighed, but didn't object. Bella could ride it some of the way, rather than have to walk the whole time, and she already seemed to have it trained pretty well.<p>

"Stay, Flower. I'll go get Mama and ask if you can stay." She'd ordered before going in to ask. It let out a grunt off understanding and waited. Upon seeing the creature, Maria sighed and thought it over slowly, not much wanting to deal with a pet. She let out a slow breath.

"Fine. But You'll have to take care of it."

"Okay Mama!"

"I mean it. The first time that you don't take care of it, it's bacon. Understand?"

"Yes Mama. I'll take good care of her." Bella agreed, and believe it or not, she _did_ take care of the pig quite well, so it got to stay.

They continued along through the woods. Maria had asked Bella a while ago if she wanted to stop and stay at one of the villages permanately, for they were probably far enough off that they wouldn't be found if they did decide to chase after them still, but Bella liked traveling and exploring, as did Maria, so they'd kept going. It wouldn't be too long until they caught up with the lead group of explorers and joined them, Maria noted as they walked. It was soon getting dark, and they decided to take shelter in a nearby cave for the night. On their way to the cave, Maria came upon an apple tree. She gave Bella some torches to go light up the cave a bit more, instructing her to wait there for her, unless there were monsters in the cave. If there _were _monsters, she would come right back to her. The girl nodded and started towards the cave.

When she finished picking the apples, Maria followed the tiny footsteps to the cave. What she found there wasn't Bella, however, but a portal. They muddy footprints lead up to it, then stopped. It didn't look like there'd been a struggle, and Bella didn't know what a portal looked like so it was possible that she'd merely been curious and wandered through it. Flower, who was nuzzling her bag in search of food offered no clues. "You stay here." She told the pig before heading through after Bella.

The hallways were surprisingly empty, but she was still very cautious, listening for any hint that she wasn't alone. She heard what sounded like Bella's voice and ran towards it. She turned corner and found Bella talking to a blonde woman in a green dress and a man with red eyes and wearing black. She instinctively kicked the man square in the chest as hard as she could, having had very bad experiences with another man of this description. She scooped up Bella as he staggered backwards letting out a shouht of pain.

"Oh Bella, are you okay? Did he hurt you?" she said, frantically looking over the girl.

"No, Mama, I'm okay." Maria looked at the man she'd just kicked, and stared back at his sad, empty eyes in shock.

_Israphel?_


	11. Chapter 11

"He's dead," they told him one day. One of those men who Israphel didn't recognize, but screamed "I'm way higher ranked in this little hiarchy than you" had simply walked over to him and said the words as if he were telling him that it were Tuesday. Actually, that wasn't a good example, seeing as it was Thursday, but you get the idea. The man was tall and had silvery hair and eyes. He was probably at least ten years older than him.

"Pardon?" Israphel turned and leaned against the stone wall, raising an eyebrow.

"John. He's dead." the man replied.

"I thought he already was," Israphel frowned. "I mean, that's great. Good riddance and whatnot, but I still don't really follow how all of this works." The man heaved a frustrated sigh.

"You of all people ought to understand that there are layers to these things."

"Ah, yes. I should, shouldn't I? Thanks for the good news. I'll be going now." He turned to walk away, but the man put a firm hand on his shoulder, restraining him. He looked down at him with disapproving eyes.

"Oh no you don't, young man. We've decided that you've been dodging your responsibilities as holder of the power of the Sands." He glared down at him.

"That's quite a mouthful, isn't it?"

"Quiet, boy," he glared. "Listen here. You will either learn to cooperate, or we will _end _you," Israphel considered these words for a moment. They shouldn't be able to kill him. What exactly were they threatening? The man took this short silence as obedience. "Look, we're going to let you sit in on a few meetings. To let you get caught up. Then we'll worry about the details of your part in this," He said a bit more gently. "Come with me."

Israphel found himself in a small round-table sort of meeting with more people he didn't know. A big map laid out in the center of the table, with marks detailing where the Heroes had been and where they might be going, important places to keep them away from at all costs, and the network of portals.

"Well look who we have here." Someone commented as he walked in. He took a seat as he scanned over the maps and papers that littered the area.

"How are we doing on the Machine?" a man with a long grey beard asked. One of the younger men answered.

"Good, sir. We aquired the dwarfs' power source. The one that keeps the Wall up. It'll be ready in a few more months."

"So approximately when do you suppose we'll be able to summon the Beast?" someone else asked.

"About a week after the machine is working,"

"What's going to keep the thing from destroying _us_?" someone asked.

"Well that's what the girl is for, isn't it? She'll make a lovely meal for it. It's worked for us in the past. A small sacrife will be all it needs to be convinced to do the same now."

The girl? Did they mean Daisy? Israphel felt the man who had escorted him here burn through him with his eyes, and tried to keep a passive, apathetic expression.

_Don't worry about it too much, _he reminded himself. _Play their game. Cooperate, then sabotage. She'll be fine. Everything will be fine._

* * *

><p>"Great news," Israphel told Daisy. "I know what they're planning to do with you."<p>

"Really?" Daisy raised an eyebrow as her fingers darted furiously along her long blonde ponytail, braiding and unbraiding it for lack of anything better to do with it.

"Yeah. Got shanghied into coming to a meeting or something. They're gonna sacrifice you to some beast."

Daisy's eyes widened. "And this is good news _how_?"

"Well, they said it should be a few more months before they can awaken it, and if I pretend to be all for this taking over the world stuff, I should have plenty of time to sabotage it. Either that, or the heroes'll figure it out. I hear they're making good progress," he said. "Also, John's apparently dead, so bonus!"

"I thought he was already, like, an undead sort of person."

"Apparently there are layers to these things," he chuckled. Suddenly, something shifted in his eyes, and he fell silent.

"Are you okay?" Daisy frowned.

"Yeah. I'm fine," Israphel said, trying to push away the sudden pain washing over him. The voices. They'd been getting harder to make go away.

_**Oh, forget the girl, **_they laughed. _**We're so close! Think of the power! You could rule evertything, all of it! Who cares if one girl dies? Who cares if a thousand people die? It's worth it. Just let us help. Let us in! **_They began to shriek.

The demons prodded at his mind, trying to get a better hold over his consiousness. They'd at first been an easy thing to ignore, simply dangling the promise of power in front of him, but seeing that he wasn't about to accept it, they had tried to force themselves upon him, _make _him accept the power. As the time for complete doination of the known world grew closer, they'd become more frantic, more urgent. What if he ruined all they'd worked for? What if he didn't break?

"I've got to go." He told Daisy, before leaving quickly. He leaned against the stone wall and squeezed his eyes shut.

_**Let us in! LET US IN! **_the demons of the Sands screamed out at pain behind his eyes grew even more intense as he tried even harder to push them back.

_GET OUT OF MY HEAD! _he mentally screeched back to them. With one final shove, he pushed them out completely, for the moment. Weak from the effort, Israphel collapsed, his breathing ragged. He wasn't sure how much more he could take. But he had to keep himself together. He couldn't break now.


	12. Chapter 12

Israphel sat against the wall, letting himself recover. They still poked at his mind a bit, but the voices weren't as powerful at the the moment as they had been. He closed his eyes, waiting for the pain behind his eyes to subside. He suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder, and snapped his eyes open. Daisy looked down at him, a very concerned look still crossing her face. He relaxed, seeing that it was only her.

"A bit jumpy, are we? I know you leave the door unlocked, you know," She smiled. Israphel looked back down at his feet. "What was that about?" She moved to sit next to him.

"It's nothing. Really."

"Don't lie. I know something's wrong with you."

"Really. I'm okay now." He assured her.

"Right," Daisy rolled her eyes, unconvinced. "Well, I guess you don't have to tell me, but I'm worried about you," she frowned. She yawned and rested her head on his houlder for a moment. "I think I'll go turn in for the night. See you tommorow Izzy."

"Good night, Daisy," he replied as she stood and walked back to her room.

* * *

><p>"<strong>Hello, Israphel.<strong>"

Israphel had fallen asleep and quickly found himself alone in the desert, surrounded by nothing but sand. Chills ran up and down his spine as the voices welcomed him.

"Where am I? Am I dreaming?" he murmmered to himself.

"**You could say that,**" the voices replied. "**This is our... **_**Meeting place.**_" Israphel heard something move behind him and turned to see a slender young woman behind him. She was wearing a black dress, and she had deep, red eyes. Her hair was long and the same shade of jet back as her dress.

"Who are you?" Israphel frowned, looking over her wearily.

"I am one of **them**," she replied. Her voice echoed and multiplied on the last word as it was joined by the others. Israphel blinked.

"I must be going mad."

"No," she laughed. "You're just getting a bit more in touch with... Us. Your past. Your future. Your _power_."

"So... You're one of the ones who came before me?" he asked, still fairly sure he was finally going insane.

"Yes. The great pharoh Lehparsi was the first. Our origin."

"I see."

She sighed pleasantly. "Isn't it beautiful?"

"What?"

"The desert. The _sand_. This is where you and I were truly born."

"I don't like it."

The girl frowned. "Well, I suppose we don't _have _to meet here. Go ahead and change it. You have as much control as we do." Israphel closed his eyes, and when they opened, they were in the forest. "Oh. How pleasant." She didn't do well at hiding the hint of distaste in the words.

"What do you want from me?" he asked.

"I am here to teach you. To help your powers grow. I am Raven. It is my job to teach you flight, one of the simpler uses of our energy."

"What if I don't want to learn?"

"I know you're one of those people who doesn't want much to do with us. We've had a few... difficult people in the past. But really, what harm can a little floating around do? It's not like Blaze or someone who will teach you anything destructive."

"So you're all named after what you teach?" Israphel said, trying to change the subject.

"Yes. I've always thought it was a bit silly, naming us after our abilities. More a way to organize us than actual names."

"So why aren't I named 'Archer' or something? I'm not named after anything."

"Yes you are. Haven't you noticed? You're name is Lehparsi, but backwards. He was the beginning, and you have been chosen to be the end. The ruler of everything. Which makes me wonder why you're dodging all this by asking stupid questions," She glared and raised an eyebrow. "We've all worked very hard to get here, and if you think we're going to let you get away with you destroying it all, you've got another thing coming."

The forest began to dissolve around them, taking the girl with it, and leaving him floating in dark nothingness. He woke up in a cold sweat, sitting bolt upright.

"**See you tommorow night, Israphel. You're done avoiding us.**" The voices growled. He fell limply back into his bed.

_Dear Notch, I hope I'm just going mad._

Things were beginning to spiral out of hand much more quickly than expected.


	13. Chapter 13

"Isn't that right Izzy? Izzy? Hey, you alive over there?" Daisy grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. Israphel pulled himself out of the dazed state he was in, blinking. "Israphel, really. You've been looking really rough these past few days. I don't like it."

"I'm sorry. I really don't want you to worry over it. I just haven't slept well lately is all. I'm fine." She rolled her eyes and dropped the subject. Israphel had refused to tell her what was wrong with him, simply telling her not to worry. She was getting a bit frustrated with him.

"Look, I get that you might not want to tell me exactly what's going on. Really, I do," Daisy sighed in frustration. "But really, you could at least tell stop telling me that everything's okay when it's obviously not."

"I'm sorry." He said simply, looking at the floor. It moved in and out of focus, and he swayed slightly. Daisy grabbed him by the shoulders again to steady him.

"You need to rest," she scolded. Israphel nodded.

"I know. I'mma go out for a bit. Get some fresh air, I guess."

"You do that." Daisy smiled.

Israphel picked a portal at random and stepped through. He found himself standing by a huge stone dragon statue where a bit of desert met a forest. He walked on the line where the two met, one foot in green, and the other in tan. He didn't like sand all too much, but this didn't seem to be part of the vast, alive desert that the Wall kept confined. It was more natural, and he liked it's warmth. Israphel found a sand dune and laid back against it, and he soon found himself drifting off to sleep.

When he dreamt, he wasn't at the "meeting place".

He was in some place that looked familiar. Definitely Minecraftia, but it seemed more artificial and _much_ more noisy. As he adjusted to his surroundings and got his bearings, he heard a shout.

"Oh my god, it's _him_!"

_What the..._

Tons of people wearing bizzare clothes ran to surround him. He didn't recognize any of them, and they were so strange looking. _They_ apparently knew him, however. Mutters of "Israphel" and "Evil" floated through the crowd. He could see that some of them had drawn their swords and bows. He ran. It was instinctive. He darted through streets and alleyways, the mob following. He made a quick turn around a corner and ran straight into a brick wall.

_Dead end._

"Are you the real Israphel?"

"Where's Daisy?"

"What are you doing here?"

"How did you get like this?"

"I hate you!"

"Yeah! Me too!"

The crowd roared insults and questions, overloading Israphel's brain. Who were these people? How did they know so much about him? He cursed under his breath.

"Why? It's not my fault," He whispered. "When I died, the bloody devil _forced_ me back! They told me the world was rightly mine. I never asked for this!" He roared suddenly. He wasn't entirely sure why he said these things, to be completely honest. Confused and shocked murmmers spread through the crowd. Something told him that they'd play telephone with his words, and that they'd be rearranged and twisted, though he wasn't quite sure what gave him the feeling.

Israphel snapped back into conciousness, confused slightly.

_What in Notch's name was that?_ He thought. Shaking the bad dream from his mind. Sounds pricked at his ears. Voices? He stood and looked around the small mound of sand.

And straight into Xephos's eyes.

The two simply stared at each other for all of two seconds, purely shocked that the other was there, before Israphel ducked back behind the sand. This was certainly turning into an interesting day. As he considered his options, he heard the spaceman yell something to his friend. The two talked back and forth, the dwarf, having not seen Israphel, seemed unsure as to whether or not he was actually there.

"No, I saw him! He was right over there!" Xephos protested. "I think maybe we need to hunt him down." Israphel didn't much like this idea, so he sprinted away into the forest, leaving the heroes, and himself for that matter, slightly confused.

* * *

><p>AN: SoI fanfic hiatus FOR GALLELL.

That is all.


	14. Chapter 14

"You know, Izzy, I haven't seen you much lately." Daisy commented.

Israphel raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Daisy shrugged. "I don't know. You've just been disappearing for weeks at a time these days. And a couple of weeks or so ago, you were gone for nearly a month."

"Oh," he replied absent mindedly. "So I was."

"You say that as if you didn't know that to begin with." Daisy frowned.

"Actually, I didn't, as odd as that may sound. The days are starting to run together a bit these days. It's a bit unsettling, really, but it's much easier to simply run on autopilot. If you spend to much time thinking or feeling down here, you're liable to go mad," Israphel sighed and ran his fingers through his short, dark hair. "Of course, it's not really preferable to do so. I simply can't help it at this point, I'm afraid."

"Odd," Daisy commented. "But really, I hate it when you dissapear like that. It gets lonely."

"Aw, you really _do _miss me!" Israphel replied, teasing. Daisy gave him a playful punch in the arm.

"Whatever," Daisy rolled her eyes. "So, anywho, how are the heroes doing?"

"Quite well, actually," He smiled. "It won't be long now, actually. They've got all but one of the map fragments now. The Machine that we're raising the Beast with is completed, and it should only be a week or so before this ends. Unfortunately, there's some bad news as well."

"Like what?"

"Lastwatch fell not long ago. I'm not sure exactly when, but the hold was buried somewhere around a week ago."

"Oh." Daisy frowned.

"But don't worry, okay? This'll be over before they can do too much more damage. I've made sure of that," Israphel reasured her. Daisy nodded, but continued to frown. "What, you don't think I'm awesome enough to beat up all of these badies?" He joked. "Because, actually, you'd be right. I can certainly give the heroes a good enough advantage, though."

"No," Daisy chuckled "It's just that..." She but her bottom lip, seeming unsure about something. "What will happen to _you _when this is all over?"

Israphel smiled. "Oh, now you know that's not important. All that matters is that you get out of here safe and sound, and that the world isn't destroyed. Besides, it's not like I have all that much to lose at this point," He shrugged. "Anyway, I found something the other day that I wanted to show you." He motioned to her to follow him.

The halls had been quite empty lately, as most efforts were being put towards the machine, Israphel explained as they walked. He'd been free to wander around without anyone asking questions because of this.

"Does the machine have a name?" Daisy asked.

"Well, there's an acronym, but I don't remember it. I think it sounds like a girls' name. Clare or something. Ah, here we are." He opened a door labled 'Observation' and entered. It was a medium-sized room with computer monitors lining the walls. There was an especially large monitor on the back wall. Israphel walked over to it and pressed a couple of keys. The screen flared to life, and waves of data and information scrolled across it. Israphel cleared most of it away, leaving just a few video streams and data windows.

"So what's all this?" Daisy asked.

"This is one of the security observation rooms. I believe it's original purpose was to keep an eye on the security cameras within the facility, but since then we've come across people that are fairly talented when it comes to technology and the like. They've hacked into anything and everything at all resembling a computer," He mashed a couple more keys, pulling up a video feed of what looked to be some sort of treasure hold. "See? Very few people have much in the way of technology, of course. We try to keep things simple, you know? People are happier that way. Only big stuff like the Skyhold and the like has it, generally. That's why we've got cameras and stuff hidden pretty much anywhere we can. This computer's also connected to the network here or whatever, so I can call up other things like that." He pointed to a window in the corner of the screen.

C.H.L.O.E.- 13%

ESTIMATED TIME UNTIL FULLY OPERATIONAL- 8 DAYS 1 HOURS

"That's the machine, then?" Daisy asked? "C.H.L.O.E.?"

"Yeah, that's it. It's main computer is somewhere in the Jade Sentinel Central Power Core. It's one of those places I'm not allowed anywhere near. They _think _I'm probably being cooperative now, but they're still pretty cautious, seeing as I have the habit of being a bit defiant. The power source and physical 'body' of the machine is the Spire just outside of Stoneholm. The C.H.L.O.E. by protocol isn't supposed to be used until the End-of-world Scenario, which I guess is now."

"And they told you all of this?" Daisy raised an eyebrow questioningly.

"Heck no," he laughed. "I mean, they told me some of it, but they don't like telling me anything." Daisy smiled. He took a moment to look her over. Her hair had grown some, and was tied neatly into a ponytail. Her skin was much less tanned than before after having spent so much time out of the sun, and her eyes were a little less bright than they'd used to be. It was a wonder she could still smile at this point. He was glad she would be out of this place soon.

* * *

><p><em>Dear Notch. This place again? <em>Israphel groaned mentally as he found himself back in the desert that existed in his subconscious mind. He'd been able to cope with the nights here a bit better these days. He'd do what they told him and learn what they taught him, but he refused to apply it to reality. They didn't like it much, but they didn't press it too much, thankfully.

"Ello there Izzy." a voice chimed from behind him. He turned to face a tall young man with the typical pale skin and red eyes. The man flashed a charming smile as he aproached.

"Hello," Israphel replied warily. "Who are you?" The man laughed.

"Well, I could be vague and just say I'm one of **Them**," he replied, his voice echoing on the last word. "You see, I've made a point of not telling people my name. More fun that way. Never really matters whether or not they know, actually. People never did last long around me, you know."

"Really now?" Israphel replied dryly. Come to think of it, the man did look vaguely familiar. Israphel took a second to look him over a bit more closely, but there wasn't much different from all the others, except for the much more intense look of pure madness in his piercing red eyes.

"Yes, yes," he replied. "In fact, there's only one person who saw me in person and lived to tell about it. It's hardly my fault she got away. I must say she's a clever little kitten. I can see why you like her so much."

"Wait, who?" Israphel said, much more interested.

"Oh, I don't remember. It started with an 'M' or something. I just know she had the most terrific little scream." he chuckled.

"Maria? I swear if you-"

"Ah yes, that's it," the man cut him off. "Is that a problem?" Israphel glared and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. The man only smiled back at him.

"Yes. Yes it is." Israphel growled.

"It's a shame I didn't get to finish her off, really. The cheeky little brat had it coming to her." He laughed.

Israphel reared back at punched him. "Shut up." he snapped.

The man recovered quickly, still laughing madly as ever. "So her name's Maria, eh? What about that lovely little blonde you've got? You know it's not fair that you get all the pretty girls. I'd certainly like to have my way with that cheeky little flower."

Israphel clinched his teeth, his anger starting to escalate. _So making me miserable wasn't enough? He had to bring _them _into this? This bloody creep hurt Maria. He would've killed her!_ Without thinking, he readied his bow and sent four arrows flying at once. One found itself in the man's left shoulder, another in his right shoulder, and one his chest. The fourth missed and lodged itself in a cactus. "Any more stupid comments?" Israphel sighed. _I'm just wonderful at overreactions, aren't I? Still, he's such a creep. Plus he hurt Maria, so he at least deserved _some _of that._

"Well, I see we've found what buttons to press. You're fairly deadly when you're angry." the man grinned, blood starting to trickle from his lips and down his chin. He and the desert began to dissolve away, leaving Israphel with his eerie chuckle echoing in his ears as he woke up.

Well, he certainly didn't feel like going to sleep. He groaned as he rolled onto his back and looked up at the ceiling, feeling rather frustrated. He sat up and ran his fingers through his messy hair with a sigh. _Might as well go for a walk. _Cold seeped into his skin as his feet hit the floor. He stepped into his shoes and pulled on his jacket, then moved into the hallway. He negotiated the maze of turns and corners, and stepped through the portal.

The cool air felt good on his face as he walked through the trees. He knew the forest so well that he could race through it in his sleep. The earth and moonlight seemed to welcome him like old friends, and the monsters even bothered to keep a respectful distance. Israphel roamed into the only recently abandoned village and looked around. Why did he come here? He wasn't too terribly sure, to be honest. Absentmindedly he entered one of the buildings. _I might as well see if I can do something mildly useful while I'm out. _he thought. He opened a small chest and looked inside, unsure of what exactly he was looking for. His eyes scanned over its contents, finding many ordinary things. They continued combing over the items until they laid on an item that he found good. He carefully picked it up, closed the chest, and left the dark village.

* * *

><p>Daisy groaned as she awoke, curling up into a little ball under the covers. She'd been sleeping quite well, and didn't much feel like getting up to face the day just yet. Five more minutes. Or hours. Whatever. She grumbled drowsily one more time before forcing herself to try to wake up. As she became aware of her surroundings, something in her mind told her something was different. Not wrong, but different. She realized that she was holding something small and soft against her chest, and opened her eyes slowly to see what this might be. As the object came into focus, she realized that it was a small stuffed rabbit, one that she'd had as a child.<p>

It was made cream colored cloth that was very soft, had button eyes, and wore a little blue dress. Its ears were floppy and as long as the toy was tall, and a smile was sewn onto its face. Daisy's mother had made it when she was very little, maybe four or five, and it had been one of her favorite playthings. When she had moved away from Mistral to Terrorvale, she'd taken it with her as a keepsake. She pressed her nose into the fabric and smiled. It smelled like home.

Home.

She would be going home soon.


	15. Chapter 15

"Go away."

"Why, good evening to you too, Izzy," The man Israphel only really knew as 'That Creep From Before' greeted. Israphel turned, picking a direction at random, and stalked off. The man chuckled, appearing out of nowhere in front of him and blocking his path. Israphel only shoved him out of the way wordlessly, leaving him behind. The man kept an amused smile on his face. "Why must you be so uncooperative? I mean really Israphel, you have all the power in the world practically! You can fly, command fire and death to rain from the bloody sky, and your skill with a bow is unmatched. The least you could do is destroy a city or kill a few people. You haven't even let me teach you my skill yet, you know. It's a fun one too."

"Not interested." Israphel muttered.

"Really now?" The man laughed. "Well, at least you've pretty much told me how to remedy the situation." He casually waved his hand over a bit of sand, causing it to stir into a pillar. The pillar formed itself into a humaniod shape, then blew away, leaving a young woman where it had been.

Maria.

She blinked drowsily, looking a bit disoriented before locking her eyes with his. "Oh hi, Izzy. What are you doing in my..." Her words drifted off as her eyes met the man's. Her eyes widened and she froze in shock.

"'Ello, kitten." he grinned. Maria cried out and flew behind Israphel, putting him between the man and herself.

"Don't let him hurt me!" she cried in fear. Israphel took her trembling form and held her close trying to comfort her. The man chuckled and came forward as if approaching a shy child hiding behind their parent.

"Aw, how precious. I honestly thought the only person to both escape us and survive would be a bit more courageous, but I see that's not entirely the case, now is it?"

"Get away from me!" she spit at him in a mix of anger and terror before looking up to Israphel. "I-I'm scared, Izzy. I want to wake up. Why... Why can't I wake up?"

"I'm afraid this is a bit different from one of your normal dreams, dear," the man said as he effortlessly plucked her out of Israphel's arms. "You see, you can't wake up, because I'm not going to let you. Put simply, the influence of my mind telling your brain not to wake up is greater than the ability of your mind to tell yourself to wake up," he explained. "You see, Izzy my friend, this is my skill. Mind control, as it's commonly referred to. It's about time you learned it, because it will easily be your greatest weapon and tool in taking control."

"Let me go, you sonuvab-mmfh!" Maria was cut off by his hand clamping over her mouth.

"Oh, are you afraid I'm going to do something to you, kitten? Don't worry. As long as you and Izzy here don't give me any trouble, you'll be just fine," He looked over to Israphel and smiled. "Isn't that right?"

"What do you want?" Israphel growled reluctantly.

"Oh it's simple, really. All you have to do is convince the girl to wake up."

"And how am I supposed to do that?" he frowned.

"The idea is to have your influence over her mind overpower my influence. I'll make it fairly easy for you, since it's your first time attempting something like this. Just concentrate on getting into her head, first off. It should come quite naturally to you. We'll go on from there."

Israphel nodded and concentrated. He wasn't entirely sure how he was supposed to do what he was being asked, but as the man had said, it happened very instinctively. He soon found himself floating in a plain, unfurnished room. Ideas and thoughts floated around him as physical things. He looked around, a bit disoriented and hesitant.

"Good job," the man's voice echoed behind him. He turned to face him. "Interesting interpretation of a physical version of thought and the like, I must say. A bit like a computer, actually. Certain thoughts and ideas sorted into folders. They do say that the human mind is effectively a computer, though, so it makes sense." He observed.

"What now?" Israphel questioned dryly.

"Well, I suppose now you have to find my thoughts and separate them from hers, after that you essentially throw out my influence and replace it with yours," He said casually. "I'm not familiar with how your little interpretation of the mind works or is laid out, but you should be able to figure it out. Once you begin to understand it, you'll be able to do it much more quickly and naturally. It won't take too much focus." The man leaned back in the corner, gesturing to him to continue.

Israphel quickly organized the thoughts, separating the three trails streaming from Maria, the man and himself. He soon found the sort of 'switch' that the man was keeping flipped to prevent Maria from waking, and with a moderate amount of difficulty forced him out of the area and allowed her to leave. Her thoughts and memories quickly funneled away, leaving only him and the man. Israphel looked around a bit, looking over stray thoughts from the man. They were all tucked away in 'folders' so to speak, unable to be seen immediately. He picked one at random, opening it curiously.

The man cocked his head to the side ever so slightly, noticing the intrusion of his thoughts. His eyes locked with Israphel's quickly and accusingly. Israphel blinked at the information he'd stumbled upon a few times, before grinning. The man immediately threw him out and back into the desert, where Israphel broke into childish laughter.

"A...Ashley? Y-Your name is _Ashley?_" he snickered.

"Oh shut up!" Ashley yelled, obviously embarassed.

"Your parents gave you a bloody _girls' _name! I see why you don't ever tell people."

"It's a guys' name too!" Ashley protested defensively.

"Well perhaps _technically_. Yes, it's very manly. Totally." Israphel chuckled. Ashley groaned and stalked off into the desert as it began to dissolve behind him.

* * *

><p>Israphel awoke to the sound of explosions. They weren't close, but they were becoming more frequent as he listened. Shouts and footsteps echoed in the hallways, and he opened the door to see what was going on. Workers swarmed in a sort of organized chaos. Israphel was only able to catch bits and pieces from them.<p>

"...Blocked off..."

"...Finbar...spaceman and dwarf..."

"...Still operational.."

_Spaceman and dwarf? The heroes? What are they doing here already? _He thought. Still unsure of what to make of the other bits. He stopped one of the men.

"You there, what's going on?" he questioned.

"Nothing to worry about sir. We think we've chased them off. You'll be happy to hear that Verigan's Hold has fallen recently, along with a good amount of other things, though." The man replied a bit nervously.

"And what of the explosions?"

"Again, nothing to worry about sir. Just a minor malfunction. We're fixing it as we speak."

"Very well." Israphel replied. He looked down the hallway absentmindedly, and and decided he'd better check on Daisy. He walked down the few corridors between her room and his, and opened the door. He furrowed his brow and frowned, blinking. _Oh no._

She wasn't there.


	16. Chapter 16

A/N: I'm just waiting for something to happen in the series that totally kills the little smidge of cannon that this plot has. xP

* * *

><p>"Oh there you are, sir," a voice came from behind him. "I'm sure you're wondering where the girl is. We've taken her to be... Prepared." The voice was that of a younger man. He seemed a bit nervous, but he did a good job of hiding it. He must've not been new.<p>

"I see. Where is she?" Israphel asked, trying to keep his voice even, though his heart raced.

"They just took her. They went that way," He said, pointing down one of the halls. Israphel nodded, and found that he could easily hear her shouting from that direction, shrieking obsceneties at the poor sap who'd gotten stuck with taking her. For some reason he pitied whoever was charged with carrying Daisy off to her doom. She'd never been one to go gently. He followed the sound of her shouts, forcing himself not to bolt in that direction.

Israphel entered a large stone room, and found Daisy struggling against three men. He instantly stopped feeling sorry for them. He knew these wretched excuses for human beings. The trio was the most terrible, heartless group of jerkfaces that they had on hand at any given time. The tallest one, and effectively the leader, was named Adair. He watched the other two with a slightly frustrated, yet bemused expression. The younger of the two that were actually keeping Daisy from ripping their throats out was Maeron. He wasn't all too threatening by himself, but for whatever reason, the boy was very loyal to both Adair and the higher ups. He was more than willing to destroy anyone, including possibly himself, on command. The last one was Sandro. He was average in height, and had dark skin and eyes, though this was all Israphel knew of him.

Adair saw him enter and walked over to greet him. "Hello, sir. Come to see the how the preparations are going, I see," He said pleasantly before shouting at the others. "Shut that girl up or _I _will!" he roared. He paced back over to Daisy, looking down at her with a strange mix of content and apathy in his eyes. Israphel knew that Adair was one of the few more or less regular people that were able to play with people's minds, so he quickly interfered.

_Better I do it than him, _Israphel thought grimly. His eyes locked with Daisy's, and he watched as her expression shifted and her struggling ceased, frightened at how easily the task had come to him. Every inch of him wanted to take her away from them and not let them so much as touch her ever again, but he also knew that doing so would compromise the chance he had to stop them from destroying the world entirely. He knew that the Sands were still winning, even though he'd already done all he could to slow them down at that point, and he couldn't risk loosing the chance to turn the Beast against them. _I'll rescue her. _he reminded himself. _Just be patient. There's nothing you can do right now. _

Israphel watched them blindfold and gag her before tying her up so that she looked like an insect trapped in a spider's web, suspended between the floor and ceiling. She had a few more days, for sure. Possibly a week, though that was a bit unrealistic. They were only _preparing_. He reminded himself. He still had time to fix this, fix everything.

* * *

><p>...<p>

Daisy felt utterly, completely betrayed. He'd only stood there expressionless while she was taken away to die. He'd seen the hurt in her eyes. She'd _trusted_ him, and he'd betrayed her. Left her to die. But, then again, in a place like this, to think that someone as kind as him could call the Nether home was much too good to be true. A part of her questioned the notion that Israphel was just as evil as the others. But only a _very_ small part. Because, when you got down to it, she was trapped. He hadn't saved her. He'd even _helped_ them. The fact that she'd gone perfectly limp as soon as he'd merely glanced at her couldn't be a coincidence.

And now silenced and plunged into darkness, only one thought screamed through her mind.

Israphel was a dirty, lying, malicious, wicked snake.

* * *

><p>AN: Very short chapter, I know. I'm a bit hesitant to post things now, because I'm unsure of some pretty important bits that we won't know about until the very end of the series. (Does the Beast ever actually get resurrected? Is Daisy even alive when they find her?) So I'm afraid I won't be posting stuff for a while. As much as it kills me to not go ahead and end this the way I want to end this. xP


	17. Chapter 17

Israphel slowly paced the floor in front of the monitor, unsure of what to do. He occasionally glancing at the screen. He bit his lip nervously.

_She'll never forgive me. Well, maybe she will. I don't blame her if she hates me. I let her be taken. I _helped _them take her. Do I even want her to care about me? It might be for the best if she hates me._

_**I bet she does hate you. Who could possibly care about someone as worthless as you?**_

Israphel flinched as the voices invaded his mind again. He could now identify specific voices. Raven, Blaze...

Ashley.

The pain behind his eyes faded as the voices drifted away. He shook his head trying to clear it. He was brought from his thoughts by the sudden blinking of one of the sections of the screen. He'd barely seen the feed black out before he was flooded by the joyous shrieks of all of the prievious incarnations of the corrupted sands and Lepharsi. The voices didn't form specific words, but cheers. Israphel didn't know what had come about to make them so happy, but knowing them it wasn't good, and apparently, they felt the need to torment him by flooding him with their voice. He let out a small pained cry and collapsed as they grew louder and louder.

When they finally subsided, he was curled up in a ball against the wall, trembling. He opened his eyes slowly to see someone standing over him. The other man knelt down to his level and flashed his trademark charming grin.

_Ashley._

"Oh, Israphel," he chuckled. "You should have listened to us." He paced towards the middle of the room. Israphel gazed lazily up to him. "But you know what, Izzy old friend? You didn't. You've dissapointed us." Ashley glared down at him. "We don't like it when people dissapoint us. Trust me. You're gonna pay." He growled before melting away. Israphel looked down at his feet with a frown.

_I want to die. I just... Want to not exist. I've got to end this soon. Before everything falls apart. _He let out a choked sob. _Before _I _fall apart._

He managed to pull himself together and walk away, not giving notice to the fact that the trio of heroes had just been decreased by one.

* * *

><p>AN: I'm not dead guys, I swear! D,x I promise I'll finish this soon. Forgive meh!

If you want to see any more of mah stuffs, my DA is SuperPoptartGirl . deviantart . com (remove spaces) And you should be able to find my YT there. ^^

Also I got this review for Beginnings that was from an account called BlueXephos. I know it's probably fake and junk, but I did send them a link in an email, and _dangit I want it to be legit! xP_


	18. Chapter 18

Daisy woke up in a bit of a haze. In her anger before, she'd tried to escape, tugging against her restraints, but after finding it to be a waste of time and energy in general, she just sulked for the next two or three days, slipping in and out of conciousness. She wasn't sure why exactly Israphel's betrayal came as a suprise to her. He was supposed to be the "Dark Lord" or whatever. Usually only referred to as the creepy pale-faced man. Hardly a man, though. Barely twenty. In a way, she still felt kind of sorry for him. Wasn't exactly his falt, not entirely at least, that he'd been kidnapped and trained by psychopaths to destroy and take over the known world.

This didn't change the fact, however, that he was still a monster, and that he'd betrayed her trust. She was foolish to trust him, really. That _was_ partially her fault, she'd decided. Didn't really matter now. What was done was done. A tired and frustrated sigh escaped her.

Daisy perked up a bit as the sound of footsteps broke the silence enveloping her. She tensed slightly, preparing to slug the intruder in the face if given half the chance. They occasionaly popped by to check on her and generally poke fun at her vunerable state, and she'd had just about enough.

The person, at least, she thought the newcomer to be a human of some sort, did not speak however, and generally made very little noise. This intrigued her. She heard the brief sound of steel slicing through rope, before the bonds supporting her went slack and she fell into the arms of the person, who only held her to break the fall before promptly putting her down. The presence still remained silent, though the sound of a sword being sheathed echoed off of the stone. The next few footsteps seemed hesitant, as if checking the surroundings for any intruders. They quickly returned, however, and the blindfold was quickly pulled away from her eyes.

The figure quickly moved behind her before she could get a half decent look at them, and a small growl rose up in her throat out of frustration as the person tugged away the remaing ropes and pulled the gag out of her mouth. Daisy snapped around, ready to determine who this was, what they wanted to do with her, and whether or not to slam their face into the nearest wall until they cried.

"Oh, it's _you_," she said numbly as his deep red eyes met hers. Israphel glanced over her questioningly for a moment before standing and offering a hand to help her up, his eyes no longer making contact with her glare. She took it, but after getting a firm grip on his wrist, she pulled him down and pinned him underneath her. He let out a small suprised yelp before falling silent again. "What? Did you think you could just waltz on in here and 'rescue' me, and then I'd just ignore the past few days?" Daisy growled.

"No, not really," Israphel replied simply. "Though, whether you think me to be a good person or not, I very much doubted you wanted to stay here and die."

Daisy considered the words for a moment. "Whatever." She stood and allowed him to get up.

"It won't be terribly long before they realize you're missing," Israphel said. "We need to be quick, but we can't attract much attention either," he looked outside the room, checking for anyone that might be in the corridors nearby. "Let's go."

"Why in the bloody Nether should I trust you?"

"You shouldn't, based on the past few days. However, I believe it would be in your best interest to do as I say for the next ten minutes." He replied flatly.

"And why is that?"

"Well, the way I see it, as I said before, you could stay here and most certainly be murdered, or you could come with me and maybe be murdered. Now, I promise that I will do nothing to harm you, but seeing as you don't exactly trust me, either way you can still understand the logic of not staying here, yes?"

"I guess so." Daisy answered, seeing no real way around it. She was confused by how he wasn't really trying to make her trust him. His whole attitude was very different compared to the Izzy she'd spoken with before. He didn't even speak now at all unless she asked him a direct question, and he was still very flat at that. Maybe she'd been a bit too hard on him...

No. She couldn't really risk it. As nice as he'd been before, she was much too quick to trust, given the circumstances. It still set her a bit on edge how very detatched he was, though.

* * *

><p>Israphel led Daisy down the corridors quickly and quietly. No one should be where they were going, but it certainly did not hurt to be cautious. Daisy had stopped asking questions, so the only sound was that of hurried footsteps. They turned a corner to find two guards. Both Israphel and the men were suprised to find each other, and they only looked at each other for a few moments before the guards realized something was wrong. Israphel locked eyes with the first guard, and the man quickly fell to the ground unconsious. Upon seeing this, the other drew his sword and attacked. Israphel quickly pulled out his own blade to block the flash of steel coming towards him, and imediately threw the man into black as he had with the other, not wanting any more blood on his hands.<p>

Israphel turned and saw Daisy wide-eyed and frozen behind him. She quickly regained her composure, having seen his slightly concerned look, though she still seemed a bit put off by the display. Israphel only shook his head and motioned for her to follow. They rounded a couple more corners to find a few others roaming the hallways, but they didn't appear to be looking for them. Israphel took Daisy by the wrist and quickly pulled her into another side passage until they passed. They continued in this fashion for a little while, keeping a swift pace and occasionally ducking away into little nooks and crannies when the odd person came by. After a few more minutes, Israphel unlocked a door, checked inside briefly, then gestured for Daisy to follow him inside.

The library.

"Stay in here. The heroes will be here pretty soon. Within the next couple of days. Maybe tonight. With any luck, this will be the last time you see me. Don't worry, no one else really comes here, and if they do, I'm the only one with the key. I'll make sure the heroes get it so that they can come and rescue you." Israphel paused, as if he were considering saying something else. He looked back at her, and opened his mouth tho speak, but remained silent.

Daisy looked over him, slightly concerned. Something in Israphel's eyes shifted slightly. He let out a cry of pain and stumbled before falling over unconsious.


	19. Chapter 19

"I-Izzy?" Daisy said cautiously. She looked down on his limp form with confusion, nudging him hesitantly with her foot. "Um... Are you... What..." Daisy groaned and knelt beside him. She turned him over onto his back, unsure as to what to do now.

_I could take his sword and the key, lock him in here, then try to escape or something. _She considered. She decided against it, however. Not a viable option. There were too many of them. She sighed and sat down next to him, put on edge by the groans that escaped Israphel occasionally.

* * *

><p>"What do you want from me this time?" Israphel grumbled apathetically, looking down at the sand at his feet.<p>

"What a pity," Ashley chuckled. "You used to be full of so much spirit. A tad bit charming, even. Are you sad because the little flower doesn't love you anymore?" Ashley asked, full of mock sympathy.

"She never did, Ashley. It's better that she feel nothing for me." Israphel replied, staring straight ahead, refusing to make eye contact.

"So, so true, Israphel. The next few hours are certainly going to be exciting ones. I remember when the little flower asked what would happen to _you_ when this was over. You just laughed and acted like it was nothing. Sure doesn't seem like nothing now does it? Knowing you could be hours, minutes from your ultimate death isn't such a _little nothing _now does it?" He spat out the next few words, glaring daggers at Israphel. He let out an angry roar that multiplied and echoed across the desert, which became restless, swirling around them.

The voices shrieked with rage, penetrating his mind and filling every inch of him with agony that multiplied as he was shoved to the ground. "You just had to be the herodidn't you?" Ashley yelled over the roar of the wind and sand, his voiced laced with the rage of the Sands "We worked so hard to get here. You would've gotten _everything_! Did you think you could help out the heroes and get off scott free for your_ amazing _contribution to the_ common good_?" He laughed mockingly, giving him a solid kick to the ribs. "Well you were wrong! The bloody _heroes_ will get the credit, and you'll burn with the rest of us! It's too late to back down now, though," he forced Israphel up to his knees, pulling him by the collar of his shirt, and tilted his chin up so that their eyes were forced to meet. "You know, it's such a shame that that lovely little girlfriend of yours and the child have to die as well. We might have let them live if you'd been more cooperative. But since that didn't work out, we'll go out of our way to make sure they die very painful deaths, _and it will be all your fault._" He hissed before shoving Israphel back down into the burning sand, which began to disentgrate along with Ashley, leaving him falling into nothing.

* * *

><p>He woke up screaming, his chest rising and falling rapidly with short, panicked breaths. Blood dripped from his nose and down his chin.<p>

"What the heck was that about?" Daisy asked, raising an eyebrow. Israphel seemed suprised to see her still sitting next to him.

"Nothing," Israphel said simply. It was clearly not nothing. She could see his hands shake. "I'm suprised you didn't try to kill me in my sleep and run off with my sword."

"I considered it."

"Of course you did. Well, I'll be going now. Stay here." He replied nervously, turning to leave. Daisy thought for a moment, then grabbed his arm.

"Izzy."

"Yes, Daisy?"

She gathered him up in a sudden hug. "I'm... Sorry. I don't know what just happened, but I think... I think I misjudged you. Sorry."

Israphel, looked at her, unsure of what to do. "Um, that's fine. Don't worry about it." He replied akwardly. She released him from her hold and watched him leave.

"Good luck at whatever the bloody Nether you think you're doing." she called after him.

"Be safe." He responded simply, shutting and locking the door behind him.


	20. Chapter 20

A/N: HEY GUISE I'M NOT DEAD. *ahem* So, after battling a severe case of writer's block, I think I may have something nice for you.

So here's the deal: I'mma go ahead and write up the rest of this regardless of what happens in the series. HOWEVER, when the ending of SoI does eventually come around, and if I just see something totally awesome I can do with it, I will write up some shiny Bonus Chapters for all of you wonderful people. You guys cool with that?

Also, I'd just like to note that I've noticed some weird spontaneous spikes in the... I guess popularity of my stories(?). So that's cool. *shrugs* Thanks for being awesome guys.

* * *

><p>Israphel exhaled slowly, trying to calm himself. <em>Okay, <em>he thought, _No problem. Just... Do what you were already planning on doing. Yeah. Do that. _He tried to convince himself to just move forward, like nothing had happenned. They were just trying to get into his head in a much less literal sense is all. _And what good would it be to panic and run to her if doing so could screw everything over?_

Funny how no matter how much sense something makes, it can still be so bloody hard to do the thing that makes sense, or whatever. Dear Notch he couldn't think straight. For a moment, he felt that he would pass out again, but he was quickly jarred back into reality by at _least _seven thousand alarms going off at once. His head throbbed, and everything else was filled with a dull ache. He chuckled bitterly. He could look pretty together if he had to, but now that no one was watching he was very obviously on the egde of a complete breakdown.

"They're over here!" Shouts echoed off of the walls with urgency. Familiar voices. Adair, Maeron, Sandro, some of the poor saps that got dragged into this mess with false promises. These, of course were added to tenfold by the voices in his head, each screaming for his attention, though Ashley appeared to not be present at the moment. He didn't like to think what that might mean. Israphel was fighting to get them out of the way and get the whirlwind of his thoughts together when another voice cut through all of them, silencing the ones in his head completely for a moment.

"This way. friend! I- Oh bloody... Help me out with this creeper, would you?"

The sound was fleeting, the voice drifting away as a flash of red and black rushed past a door to another corridor on the left, quickly followed by another figure. Israphel quickly followed behind the figure, standing in the opening. He pulled an arrow from its sheath, readied his bow, and let it fly. It zipped past the two men, the feathers brushing against the taller of the pair's left ear, and lodging itself into the wall in front of them.

The spaceman whirled around, expecting a skeleton. The dwarf let out a cry of shock as they both faced the silent archer. Israphel bolted back into the hallway he'd come from, dropping the library key in front of its respective door for the two to find before diving into another portal. As much as he _just couldn't wait_ for these two to kill him, there was just one last thing he needed to do.

He found himself in one of their Overworld bases. Everything here had pretty much gone to heck as well. The structure shuddered from the occasional explosion.

The kingdom was crumbling.

He went through yet another portal, and arrived in a room made almost entirely of steel. He glanced at a sign to confirm his location.

JADE SENTINEL POWER CORE: AUTHORISED PERSONEL ONLY

Israphel walked over to the two men guarding the door to the Core. "I need to get in here for a moment," he stated. The guards "regretfully" informed him that he was not allowed to enter. "Let me rephrase that," Israphel said, giving them a glare, "Let me into the room. That's an order, and I believe that it would be in your best interest to follow it."

Of course, they _didn't._ so Israphel had to resort to disarming and incapacitating the guards. He was trying to _not _kill anyone if he could help it, but the two pulled their swords and attacked him as a response. They both ended up unconsious with injuries that they may or may not be able to recover from in the long run, and Israphel was a bit worse for wear himself. He entered the room with a sigh, pressed some buttons, slashed some wires, and left when he was satisfied that he'd screwed them all over as best as he could, another alarm adding to the bedlam.

Israphel's head spun as he walked back to the observation room and watched as one feed after another dropped and thousands of years of work crumbled. The sounds of footsteps and heavy breathing behind him announced the arrival of the heroes. He turned to face them just as a third figure entered quietly, her quiet but strong eyes looking into his. He quickly focused his attention back on the two men approaching him.

They were amazing warriors, for sure. Israphel would have enjoyed the challenge more if he hadn't been in such a state as he was. He put on a bit of a show, flying around a bit and shooting arrows and a few fireballs. He gave the two some decent wounds to patch up later while they recounted their story of victory to the others before gladly welcoming the the quiet blackness that surrounded him.

* * *

><p>AN: Forgive me if this chapter seemed a bit confusing, and I was going for something a bit like that, as Israphel's mind was starting to slip at this point. I don't think it's too confusing though, and I was still able to follow what was going on well enough when I re-read it the next day. Tell me if I failed miserably at that though, and I'll try to fix it. If not, I'll put together the epilogue for you guys, which will totally be much more clear than this chapter and should provide a good close for this. Dx

In other news, I'm thinking about rewriting Beginnings for you guys. Looking back, it doesn't fit quite right and isn't that great quality-wise, seeing as I wrote it ages ago now. What do you guys think?


	21. Chapter 21

A/N: Long Chapter is Long. xP Enjoy. After this, I intend to rewrite Beginnings, because honestly, it needs a little work. I don't know how that'll work with the alerts you guys have, but one day you could easily find that I've taken down the old chapters and replaced them with shiny new ones.

* * *

><p>"Just start from the beginning, luv."<p>

Daisy looked back at the man questioning her with contempt. Couldn't they just give her a few days too get herself back together? As soon as they'd arrived at Icaria, people had swarmed the heroes and celebrated, but their attention was soon turned towards her, the poor girl that had been captured at the very start of the War, only to be freed from her evil captor at the very end. Most kept a decent distance but there were curious looks and whispers in her direction, which bothered her a bit more than it really should have, she supposed, but she hadn't gotten much good sleep recently, so naturally she was a bit irritable.

Eventually a man that she didn't really recognize walked up to her, and said that he needed to have a word with her. Daisy had become a bit wary of strangers due to her ordeal, but the man seemed genuine enough, so she nodded and followed him into another room, away from the crowd celebrating the victory over the Sands or whatever. She was less sure of what had actually been the specific aim of the long adventure every minute, because it didn't seem like anyone knew specifically who the big bad had actually been. All anyone knew was that there was some sort of evil thing in that desert over there tearing down walls and killing things, and that causing lots of explosions and killing That One Guy seemed to have fixed it.

Which, she supposed it did, so fair enough.

The room he had taken her to was very simple. Just a small sitting area with a couple nice paintings on the cream colored walls and a couple of couches. Nothing special, but still rather comfortable and quiet in comparison to the party. He motioned for her to take a seat across from him.

"So what is it you need to talk to me about?" Daisy asked tiredly.

"We need to know exactly what happened while you were imprisoned in the Nether, and if there's anything important that you overheard that we don't know about." He replied.

"There's not much to tell." She replied. It was more or less a lie, depending on how you looked at it. She was fairly sure that they wouldn't care to hear about Israphel actually _not_ being the jerk that everyone else had decided he was, and would likely write it off as Stockholm syndrome or something and throw her into some post-trauma counsling stuff that she really didn't want anything to do with.

So here we are now.

"Just start from the beginning, luv."

"I told you, there isn't anything to tell. They were just gonna use me as bait, but when their stupid plans turned all upside-down and _that _didn't work, they threw me in a cell to rot until they decided that I would be a nice little snack for their pet giant angry monster, then the heroes showed up and saved me. The. End." She replied, her impatience becoming more obvious with every word. The man, not satisfied with her _wonderful_ summary opened his mouth to question her further, but before he could say something, he was interupted by the door opening to reveal Xephos with a tray with two cups of coffee balanced carefully on one hand. He used the other to guesture for the other man to leave.

"I think that's enough for now," He told the him. The man began to protest, but was cut off by a stern glare from the spaceman, and he left reluctantly. He set down the tray on a nearby table, taking one of the cups and handing the other to Daisy. "Sorry about that. Don't know who's idea it was to start interrogating you as soon as you got back," he began, replacing the spot that the other man had left across from her. "We're just terribly worried about you. You've just sat by yourself ever since we got back. I suppose that should be expected, though. You've been through a lot, and I'm you haven't slept well."

"Yeah, I guess." She replied absently, looking the spaceman over. She noted that he had gained a small scar just above his left eye since she'd seen him forever ago, and there was some bruising along his jaw that hadn't yet recovered. One of his hands was bandaged as well. He'd come out of this a little worse for wear as well.

"Are you okay, Daisy? I really do hate to ask much about the matter so soon, but did anything happen to you that we should be concerned about?

"No."

"Okay then." He responded simply, droppping the subject in it's entirety much to Daisy's suprise.

* * *

><p>When he woke up, he could feel eyes staring into his soul.<p>

Israphel groaned, opening his eyes despite protests from the headache that resulted. He blinked, trying to focus on the two people looking at him. "What the..." he groaned once more. His head hurt, and he couldn't recall much of what happened before he woke up, much like a bad hangover.

"Aww, how cute! Can I keep him?" A familiar and feminine voice cooed above him. A young woman with jet black hair and red eyes leaned over him, smiling.

"What do you mean by that? He's not a lost puppy, you know. He's the failure. The lost cause. That's why we made the new guy deal with him. He's no good." Another voice from the side answered. This voice was also familiar, but he couldn't place it.

"Don't be so mean, Blaze. Nothing that can be done now." The girl shrugged.

"So you're telling me that the fact that we lost all thanks to him doesn't bother you at all?"

Oh. Those two. This was just lovely.

"Hey, he was Ashley's responsibility, not mine," Raven argued "Speaking of which, where'd he go?"

"I don't know. Went off to go kill one of Izzy's old girlfriends or something." Blaze replied.

_Oh bloody... Maria! _Israphel thought. This was getting worse by the second. He let out a frustrated shout, which was ignored by the two arguing next to him.

"Well no wonder he wasn't compliant! He had something to protect! Why didn't anyone check on that idiot we had look after him to make sure he'd tied up all the loose ends _before_ now?"

"What the heck is going on?" Israphel muttered. He knew he should know, that there was something he was forgetting, but he simply could not remember.

"Oh that's easy. You're dead." Blaze replied simply. He marched off, frustrated by Raven and the circumstances. Israphel turned to Raven questioningly.

"Do you really not remember?" she asked, surprised. "Well, I do guess that we had driven you completely mad by that point. We lost, and the heroes killed you, and all is right with the world," She said the last phrase in a very sing-songy and sarcastic manner. "What that means for us is that we've been dimension-locked. We can't go back to the Overworld, and any of us that were already in the Overworld, such as that psycho Ashley, can't get back here. It also means that if any of us are killed again by anything, we'll cease to exist entirely."

"Oh," Israphel replied. "So... Maria..."

"I'm sorry Izzy, but if she's the one Ashley was going after, then she's toast. You can't go save her."

"That's not entirely true," Someone added behind them. They turned to face this newcomer, and found a young man dressed in white and carrying an enchanted blade. Raven's face impossibly paled even more, and she fled, leaving Israphel behind. "Don't worry, I'm not here to kill any of you," the man chuckled. "Verigan Antioch at your service." the man introduced.

"Aren't you dead?" Israphel asked.

"Aren't you?"

"Fair enough."

"We thought you might want to help us take care of a little problem back on the Overworld." Verigan stated.

"Can't. I'm one of them, remember?"

"We decided to make a bit of an exception for you. We can't change what you are, but we can let you out of the Nether. You wouldn't be able to return, but I doubt you'd want to."

"Okay." Israphel agreed.

"Good luck then." A portal appeared, and Verigan handed Israphel a sword before shoving him through.

* * *

><p>Maria awoke to someone pinning her to her bed by the wrists with one hand and holding a dagger with the other. Her eyes shot open and stared into the glowing red ones above her in shock.<p>

"Ello kitten," The intruder growled. She tried to struggle, but found that it was useless. "Sorry to just drop in like this luv, but I promised Izzy that I'd _take care of you_, so to speak," he continued, his face now inches from hers. Maria, not at all happy with the vunerable position she was in, glared back at him. "Now... What to do... I suppose I could do whatever I liked to you, couldn't I? Oh, get your mind out of the gutter and brush it off a bit, kitten," he chuckled, seeing the blush that had come across her face turn back into rage and fear. "I mean, I could, but I was thinking more along the lines of _ending you,_" Ashley grinned madly. "A cut here, a couple slices there... I could certainly take my time with it, and I intend to."

"What if I scream?"

"Who would hear you?"

* * *

><p>Israphel darted through the forest swiftly and silently, cutting down the creatures of the night that no longer kept a respectful distance. He arrived at the small house at the very edge of civilization where Maria had fled. He quietly opened the door and slunk into the house, not wishing to be seen. He came to another door, seemingly to a bedroom and peeked in to find the young girl that Maria had taken in sleeping soundly. He closed the door carefully. He heard a noise in another room across the house, and went to investigate. He quietly opened this door, and found Ashley on top of Maria, cutting a graceful, but bloody line across her face with a shining dagger.<p>

Israphel silently closed the space between him and the psychopath and pulled him violently to the floor. Ashley and Maria both surprised by this turn of events let out a loud cry. Israphel pinned Ashley underneath him. They both struggled against each other, Ashley trying to stab Israphel until he pulled the dagger from his grasp.

"Remember when you told me that I could be deadly when I was angry?" Israphel asked. "Well I am _very, very _angry." he said before slitting the man's throat and stabbing him in the chest. Before hardly any blood could pool around them, Ashley melted into shadows, ceasing to exist.

Israphel looked into the face of a very shocked and confused Maria. She ran to him and pulled him into a hug, still shaken up by what had just occured. He tried to comfort her while she cried, and gradually the sobs stopped.

"I've got to go now, you know." He said plainly.

"Yeah. Thanks."

"No problem."

She watched as he left, and woke up the next morning wondering if it was only a dream, the only thing left of it being a cut down the side of her face that could have come from anything.

Israphel walked back into the forest, unsure of what to do now. There was nothing left for him here. He'd helped save the world from collapse and protected Maria from the last threat that she couldn't handle herself. He was tired. Exhausted even. He leaned against a tree and closed his eyes. The voices didn't bother him anymore like they used to. That was nice. He continued deeper into the forest, still not entirely sure what to do with himself anymore. They'd seriously screwed things up for him.

"You don't belong here either, do you?" a voice chimed in behind him. He turned around and saw what looked like a normal man, but where the pupils and corneas of his eyes should have been, there was only white. The man leaned casually on his iron sword. "You know, there's a place for people like us, the ones that don't belong anywhere else. The name's Herobrine, by the way." He said motioning for Israphel to follow.

"Israphel."

"Nice to meet ya' kid. Let's see what we can do for you." Herobrine smiled, leading him into this new world of uncertainy.

* * *

><p>AN: YEP THREW ALL CANNON OUT THE WINDOW. Please tell me that wasn't too out there. Dx I TRIED OKAY? But hey, you guys will get your nice little cannon-ish ending after the series ends. I'll change the story status to coplete after that. So, as I have said before: PATIENCE.

So I guess this effectively ends this little writing venture that I started over a year ago. I hope you enjoyed. If you didn't enjoy it, please leave a review so that I can improve. Thank you!

For any of you that don't already know, you can find more of my stuff at SuperPoptartGirl . deviantart . com (remove the spaces, of course) From there you can find my YouTube channel and website that has almost nothing on it but a random party button if you so desire.

Again, thank you so much for taking the time to read this story! 3


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